Elon Musk needs no introduction.
Since the beginning of the year, the whimsical and charismatic CEO of Tesla (TSLA) has dominated the headlines.
There is only him.
He demands the attention of all debates on innovations. He even managed to impose himself in the debates about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
When the leaders of car manufacturers praise the turning point of electrification, they also attack Tesla, promising to steal the sector's leadership from the Texan group.
The conquest of space and the last frontiers of a fast, secure and independent connection to the Internet are measured by the yardstick of SpaceX and Starlink, two other success stories of the billionaire.
In addition, the tech tycoon recently said that he was building a humanoid robot into which we could upload our personalities and brains.
The New Super Hero
Musk has even engaged in a showdown with President Joe Biden, forcing the latter to recognize and applaud Tesla's role in the transformation towards less polluting vehicles.
And to top off a turbulent first four months of the year for everyone who isn't called Musk, the world's richest man is at the center of a new saga — of which he is the director and the lead actor.
It began on April 4.
That day Musk announced that he had become one of Twitter's (TWTR) largest shareholders with a 9.2% stake.
This large investment is explained by the fact that he is not happy with the way in which the social network applies the principles of free speech.
Musk therefore wants a kind of Copernican revolution of the platform.
For example, he criticizes the economic model based on advertising adopted by the company founded by Jack Dorsey.
Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images/TS
The next day, Twitter management and Musk announced an agreement, under which Musk agreed to acquire no more than 14.9% of Twitter until 2024 in exchange for a seat on the board, effective April 9.
But at the eleventh hour, Musk called off that deal and on April 14 launched a hostile bid for Twitter at $54.20 a share.
It is noted that he used the number 420, which refers to April 20 and is a touchstone phrase for marijuana users as the international day of imbibing.
Musk is one of the few CEOs to have smoked marijuana in public: In 2018 when he appeared on controversial personality Joe Rogan's podcast and smoked a spliff while chatting with him.
As questions emerged about the financing of the operation, the serial entrepreneur announced that he had secured some $46.5 billion, including loans from a consortium of banks and a margin loan tied to his 173 million Tesla shares.
The Twitter Saga
Twitter's board, which had a poison pill in place to make it difficult to acquire the company, found itself with its back to the wall.
On April 25, Twitter's management finally capitulated by announcing that it accepted Musk's $44 billion offer. In the meantime, the billionaire has mounted a campaign of pressure and denigration on the social network.
At the same time, his notoriety has continued to grow.
He now has nearly 88 million followers, up 12 million compared to early March.
Image source: Shutterstock/TheStreet
The acquisition of Twitter, which will not be finalized before the end of October at the earliest, is an important victory for Musk because it is the result of a Homeric fight.
It ended up establishing his notoriety and consolidating his status as the new superman with his fans.
It is therefore no surprise that requests from them asking him to solve many problems or to acquire other emblematic companies flood his Twitter account.
'I Can't Do Miracles'
And the billionaire himself fueled this shower of complaints by posting that he was going to buy Coca-Cola from now on.
"Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in," he jokingly posted on April 27.
"can you buy fox I want another season of “firefly," asked Bill Markus, the co-founder of Dogecoin, Musk's favorite crypto.
Without saying if he was going to buy Fox, Musk nevertheless responded to the aspect of the content raised by Markus.
"Can you just buy Facebook and delete it?!" another Twitter user asked.
"Buy Tiktok and delete it," another user commented.
The list of companies fans are asking Musk to buy is long. It goes from McDonald's to Disney to Google.
In addition to companies, some fans ask their hero to buy either an African country, Cuba, the Federal Reserve or even all existing bookstores.
While these outlandish demands are often jokes, they are a testament to the cult following that Musk is currently generating both in mainstream business circles and in the crypto/metaverse/web3 galaxy that wants to disrupt the system.
Aware of the expectations he arouses, Musk, however, wanted to put an end to all these requests.
He posted a message that could not be clearer, seeming to remind his fans that even for him there are limits.
"Listen, I can’t do miracles ok," the billionaire, whose fortune is estimated at $253 billion as of April 27, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, wrote.
Whether his millions of fans and worshipers got the message remains to be seen.
