The world’s richest man, South Africa-born Elon Musk, has taken a 9.2% stake in Twitter, a week after hinting about plans to shake up the social media platform.
Twitter shares rose around 26% in pre-market trading after a regulatory statement regarding Musk becoming the platform’s biggest shareholder was confirmed.
Musk now owns 73.5 million Twitter shares, valuing his passive stake at around $2.89 billion, based on last Friday’s market close.
Musk polled his more than 80 million followers on Twitter late last month, asking them whether the company adheres to the principles of free speech.
More than two million of his followers voted, and after 70.4% said ‘No’, the Pretoria-born 50-year-old confirmed he was giving serious thought to starting his own platform.
The announcement will be another major test for new Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal who replaced Jack Dorsey after he unexpectedly resigned in November 2021.