Elon Musk, the chief executive of tech companies SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA), is not known for having a circumspect approach to speaking his mind.
Even by those standards, however, his recent activity has left most of the market and the media with Musk fatigue.
In the last two weeks, Musk has rolled out his new factory in Austin, Texas, made up with President Joe Biden and courted his officials, and snapped up the largest portion of social media platform Twitter (TWTR).
That last part has been soaking up all the oxygen in the room for most of that time, as Musk has whipsawed between being an active investor to a passive investor to an active investor again, only to change his mind Friday morning and offer $43 billion to buy Twitter in its entirety.
That bid has already been rejected by at least one shareholder, and prompted a discussion around Twitter adopting a "poison pill" scenario to stave off a hostile takeover.
Along the way he's trolled the company, rejected a seat on its board and begun polling his nearly 82 million Twitter followers about changes they'd like to see at the company.
He also suggested that the company's San Francisco building be refurbished into a homeless shelter, and the "W" removed from Twitter's name.
But Musk clearly isn't finished yet.
Irritation Flares Around Tesla, Twitter
In a TED interview that he gave on Friday, he came out swinging for some of his past rivals and adversaries.
Musk has always been a contrarian figure, and while the last two weeks have felt like a manic episode that keeps flaring up, it is just the latest in the billionaire's pugnacious approach to business.
During a TED appearance Friday that often felt more like a public relations attempt to paint Musk as a benevolent benefactor to world welfare, he did once or twice get heated.
When his interviewer, Chris Anderson, pushed Musk on a potential conflict of interest between him owning Twitter and being one of its most influential users, the billionaire was clearly annoyed.
Musk Comes For Mark Zuckerberg
He shot back in a stinging rejoinder that he would structure the company in a way to avoid that perception, transitioning it to open source.
Then he took a shot at Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, with whom he has a testy relationship, dubbing him "Zuck the Fourteenth" in an apparent nod to the French king famous for his hubris and excess, Louis the XIV.
Said Musk:
I wouldn't personally be, uh, you know, in their editing tweets. But you'll know if something was done to, to promote demo or otherwise affect a tweet, you know. As for media sort of ownership, I mean, you've got, you know, Zuck work [at and owning] Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp, and with a share ownership structure that will have Zuckerberg the 14th still controlling those entities. [We] certainly we won't have that at Twitter. If you commit to opening up the algorithm, that definitely gives some level of confidence.
SEC Wounds Still Fresh
Musk was similarly irritated by mention of his past struggles with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The regulator has slapped Musk in the past for tweeting about taking Tesla private, a tussle that ended in a ban on Musk tweeting about the company and increased scrutiny on the billionaire for potential market manipulation.
When asked about that Friday, Musk said he wanted to set the record straight, and that the SEC had essentially extorted him into making false statements, when he did, in fact, have funding lined up for the deal.
He called the situation similar to someone "pointing a gun at your child's head."
Said Musk:
I was told by the banks that if I did not agree to settle with the SEC that we go bankrupt immediately. So that's like having a gun to your child's head. So I was forced to concede to the SEC unlawfully, those bastards. And now it makes it look like I lied when I did not in effect lie. I was forced to admit that lie to save Tesla's life. And that's the only reason.
