Elon Musk has purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter which amounts to 73,486,938 shares in the company. In the past, the Tesla CEO has criticized the platform for censoring people who hold certain beliefs.
“Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk tweeted. “What should be done?”
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives appeared on Monday’s “Squawk Box” on CNBC and said Musk could try to take a more aggressive stance on Twitter which could lead to “some sort of buyout.”
“This makes sense given what Musk has at least been talking about, at least from a social media perspective,” Ives said.
According to CNBC, a regulatory filing released this morning, Musk owns nine-point-two percent of the company. The stake is worth nearly three billion dollars and he is now the company’s biggest shareholder. Recently Musk hinted that he would start his own social media company.
Musk has more than 80 million Twitter followers on the platform.
“I think this is just the starter,” Ives said, referring to the Musk purchase. “Musk is not going to do this just to take a passive stake. He’s ultimately trying to change Twitter, in terms of a more active stake or eventually this could lead to a buyout.”
