Twitter Now Belongs To Elon Musk (With Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed As Second Largest Shareholder)
Although Elon Musk — current world’s richest man — is certainly a skilled industrialist and investor, we cannot assume his ambitions here are entirely… or at all… beneficial for the average man or woman.
He took Twitter, previously a publicly held company with quarterly disclosure requirements, private. Now its operations are actually less visible than before, or soon will become so. And its obligations to various federal recordkeeping laws will be a sliver of its previous duties as a public company.
For the $44 billion Twitter buyout bid, he did not use only his own cash. He took in a large sum reportedly from fellow billionaire Larry Ellison, and also $7.1 billion or so of financing came from Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed — making him the largest shareholder, it has been reported, after Musk himself.
Saudi Arabia’s interest actually makes sense; this keeps the desert kingdom globally relevant in the tech world, and the Arab Spring was launched in part via Twitter… owning the platform partially will keep their ear to the rail when it comes to hearing of any future uprisings or mass dissent etc… better the mouse trap you own.
If not motivated by pure love for humanity, what are some slightly more ulterior motives Musk might harbor? Consider, just theories:
- Theoretical Elon Musk ban was coming on Twitter, now that he’s locked horns with the Biden admin multiple times, so he bought it to prevent this checkmate
- The government according to some reports recently in the press may be criminally investigating Tesla - maybe he wants to delete old DMs now that he owns it. The investigation is reportedly in relation to fatalities while assisted driving was engaged.
- Staying relevant globally; like Ellison and Alwaleed, Musk may want a greater stake in the online conversation.
- Good affluent customer list for eventually promoting Tesla products, Starlink, and for onboarding cryptocurrency features.
—FULCRUM Research