Tesla founder Elon Musk has revealed a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter , likely making him the biggest shareholder in the micro-blogging site.
Elon Musk’s move comes close on the heels of his tweet that he was giving a serious thought to building a new social media platform.
A filing showed that Elon Musk owns 73.5 million Twitter shares, valuing his passive stake in the company at up to $2.9 billion based on the stock’s Friday close. The shares are held by the Elon Musk Revocable Trust, of which he is the sole trustee.
A Twitter user, Musk has over 80 million followers since joining the site in 2009 and has used the platform to make several announcements, including teasing a go-private deal for Tesla that landed him in regulatory scrutiny.
“We would expect this passive stake as just the start of broader conversations with the Twitter board / management that could ultimately lead to an active stake and a potential more aggressive ownership role of Twitter,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note.
Elon Musk has been selling his stake in Tesla since November, when he said he would offload 10 percent of his holding in the electric-car maker. He has already sold $16.4 billion worth of shares since then.
Jack Dorsey, the co-founder, stepped down as CEO and chairman in November last year, but continues to own a 2.25 percent stake in the company that makes him the sixth biggest shareholder, according to Refinitiv data.
