The world’s richest person, Elon Musk, has struck a deal to buy Twitter for $44bn.
Musk, who is worth some $270bn, said Twitter had “tremendous potential” that he would unlock and make the platform a bastion of free speech while developing new features including “authenticating all humans”.
Musk joined the social media platform on June 4, 2010. He has since become a prolific tweeter, racking up tens of thousands of tweets and more than 84 million followers.
Musk’s successful bid for Twitter
In January 2022, Musk began amassing a stake in the 16-year-old social networking platform that has become a hub of public discourse and free speech.
Here is a brief timeline of events that led to Musk’s successful bid for the company:
April 4 – Musk buys a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter worth about $2.9bn.
April 5 – Twitter announces that Musk will join its board.
April 9 – Musk tweets “Is Twitter dying?”
April 10 – Twitter CEO announces Musk no longer joining its board.
April 13 – Musk tries to buy 100 percent of Twitter’s stock at $54.2 per share.
April 15 – Twitter announces a “poison pill” plan to defend itself from Musk’s takeover bid.
April 21 – A stock exchange filing shows Musk has lined up $46.5bn in financing.
April 25 – Twitter confirms it is selling the platform to Musk for $44bn.
Who does Musk follow?
Musk currently follows 114 accounts including his own companies SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, OpenAI and The Boring Company.
Other notable accounts Musk is following include Canadian musician Grimes who is the mother of two of 50-year-old Musk’s children X Æ A-Xii and Exa Dark Sideræl – pronounced X Ash A Twelve and Exa Dark sigh-deer-ee-el, respectively.
Musk has five other children: twins Griffin and Xavier and triplets Damian, Saxon and Kai from a previous marriage.
Musk also follows comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan, rapper and songwriter Kanye West (Ye), as well as several members of the cryptocurrency and AI landscape.
What does Musk tweet most about?
Al Jazeera analysed more than 12,500 of Musk’s tweets from 2010 to 2021 to see what Twitter’s new owner talks about the most.
Unsurprisingly, with nearly 2,000 mentions, “TESLA” – Elon Musk’s electric car company that he founded in 2003 – is Musk’s most tweeted word followed by “SpaceX”, his aerospace company and then “Cars”.
Musk also uses his platform to share updates on “Rockets” including “landing” the “Falcon” and “dragon” spacecraft, which Musk hopes will help humanity travel to Mars within the next 10 years.
