Twitter users woke up April 4 and found the words “Elon” and “Elon Musk” trending on the site — not because the world’s richest, most-followed businessman had caused a stir with his futuristic companies, but because he’d disclosed a major stake in Twitter Inc.
Suddenly, Musk was Twitter’s largest individual shareholder, with more than 9% of the company, and speculation swirled about how he would influence the network’s future. He’d been frequently tweeting ideas for revamping the social media platform. Over the next week, Musk would accept an offer to join Twitter’s board of directors and, in a sudden reversal, reject that offer five days later, leaving the company’s management, employees, investors and interested observers guessing about his plans.
Will Musk continue buying Twitter shares at market prices, slowly building up his position until he—potentially with a sympathetic co-investor or another current shareholder — holds enough of the stock to control its destiny? Will Musk decide to buy shares from Twitter’s other investors? Will Musk ultimately decide to sell his shares and pocket his gains? As the news develops, here’s a look at what’s happened so far:
January 31: Musk starts building his stake
Musk started quietly buying Twitter shares on January 31. By March 14, Musk had accumulated an over 5% stake, the point after which he was supposed to disclose the activity to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and by extension, the public. Musk missed the deadline to inform the SEC by 10 days. Because Twitter’s share price rose the second his stake was revealed, he was able to accumulate more on the cheap by not disclosing — a misstep that would later trigger a shareholder lawsuit.
March 24: Musk starts critiquing Twitter, on Twitter
His stake still secret, Musk began tweeting criticisms of the company in late March.
“Worried about de facto bias in the Twitter algorithm having a major effect on public; Twitter algorithm should be open source,” Musk tweeted on March 24.
“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” Musk asked his Twitter followers in a poll posted on March 25.
“Is a new platform needed?” Musk asked in a tweet on March 26. “Am giving serious thought to this.”