By: Angelique Taylor 

Elon Musk is an entrepreneur, investor, and business magnate. He bought 9.2% of Twitter stock making him a shareholding majority without most of the legal work. He bought $2.64 billion dollars of stock, only a fraction of one percent of his total net worth. Because he bought all of this stock and filed it passively, he’s not part of Twitter’s main board but he can make suggestions. This purchase creates “passive income” for Musk, money that can be earned automatically with minimal labor to earn or maintain.

Born in South Africa, he has lived in the United States since he went to the University of Pennsylvania from 1992-1997. Musk is a self-made billionaire with a net worth of $267.3 billion. He is also lead designer of SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies). Zip2 was his first successful business that got him $307 million to reinvest into his other ideas. Twitter is a very small company compared Musk’s companies Tesla and SpaceX.

Musk likely won’t change anything about Twitter because he owns it passively, but it’s always a possibility for him to own Twitter itself. He made multiple posts and polls asking questions about Twitter. He made comments about freedom of speech but most people don’t understand his complicated sarcasm because he understands there is no such thing as “freedom of speech” in a private company.

Mrs. Franz, personal finance teacher at Bellbrook High, answered some questions about Musk’s choices in his Twitter shareholding. 

Q1: Does Musk plan to use the audience’s input to change Twitter’s policies on freedom of speech?  I am sure that Elon Musk has some sort of agenda but again, that remains to be seen.  Twitter has been under scrutiny since it has removed several high profile politicians from its platform.  Perhaps Elon Musk will permit a more open “freedom of speech” policy?  That is just speculation on my part. I do not know what he plans to do with Twitter. 

Q2:  Was Twitter a financial buy, or him showing his wealth off?  According to an article from The Street, I don’t think Elon Musk has disclosed what he will do with Twitter. But as of right now, Elon Musk owns 9.2% of Twitter and has the option to purchase more stock or make a bid for the company outright.

Q3: Are other shareholders affected by this huge chunk of Twitter stock being bought up?  I think in the short run stockholders are affected because of the hype surrounding who the buyer is and the uncertainty of what his role will be in the day to day operations. Stockholders are also waiting to see if he will make changes to the Twitter platform. If he chooses to do that, you may see a lot of activity in the stock.