Tesla’s Elon Musk takes control of Twitter for P2.3 trillion 

Elon Musk, best known as the head of electric vehicle (EV) company Tesla, will also be sitting at the driver’s seat of social media platform Twitter. The billionaire entrepreneur recently bought out the microblogging site for $44 billion (Php 2.3 trillion) in cash. 

Elon Musk just purchased social networking site Twitter, with plans to make its algorithm public while making the company private

Twitter’s board of directors accepted the acquisition offer on April 25, 2022, resulting in the company’s shares rising in value by 5.7 percent. This concludes Musk’s buyout efforts which he had proposed less than two weeks earlier. The sale, which will make Twitter a private company, is set to be finalized within the year.

The news comes just as Tesla announced plans to mass-produce its driver-less ‘robotaxi’ by 2024. Henrik Fisker, chief executive officer at Tesla rival Fisker Inc., left Twitter shortly after the acquisition was announced. However, the company’s @fiskerinc Twitter account remains active.

Tesla’s stock price went down by over $125 billion (Php 6.53 trillion) on the market day following the announcement, costing Musk $30 billion (Php 1.57 trillion) from his personal net worth. This was seen by analysts as a sign that Tesla shareholders are anxious over yet another venture distracting Musk from dominating the EV race.

Tesla shares took a dive the day after Musk's acquisition of Twitter was announced

Apart from serving as chief executive of Tesla, Musk oversees aerospace company SpaceX. He also initiated infrastructure firm The Boring Company, as well as co-founding neurotechnology company Neuralink and artificial intelligence research laboratory OpenAI.  

Styling himself as an advocate for free speech, Musk has taken aim at Twitter’s moderation policies. “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” he said in a statement. At the time of Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, he had more than 80 million followers.    

What are the implications of a Musk-led Twitter regarding freedom of speech?

The business magnate’s relationship with Twitter began in June 2010, when Musk published his first tweet on his personal account. He began to buy Twitter shares on January 31, 2022, announcing that he had acquired 9.1 percent of the platform’s stock for $2.64 billion (Php 138 billion), making him Twitter’s largest shareholder.

An unsolicited attempt by Musk to purchase the social media platform on April 15 for $43 billion (Php 2.25 trillion) was countered with a ‘poison pill’ strategy that would allow Twitter shareholders to buy additional stocks in the event of a hostile takeover. Nine days later, multiple news outlets reported that both Twitter and Musk were in final negotiations to execute the deal.   

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