According to a 13G filing (used to report a party's ownership of stock that is over 5% of a class of equity) released earlier today by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk owns 73,486,938 shares of Twitter worth $2.89 billion, based on the company’s closing price on Friday, April 1. The papers dated March 14 show that Musk owns a 9.2% passive stake in the microblogging company. Elon Musk has 80.1 million followers on his Twitter account, marking him as one of the most-viewed commentators.
His move comes less than two weeks after criticizing the company on its free speech principles. “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy […] What should be done?” Tesla CEO tweeted. Moreover, Elon Musk said he was considering building a new social media platform.
The market reacted quickly to the news, with Twitter shares jumping more than 25%.
Sources: cnbc.com, thestreet.com