As Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk hopes to buy Twitter Inc (NYSE: NYSE:TWTR) in a $43 billion deal, he is now no longer the company’s largest shareholder.
What Happened: A recent SEC filing shows that Vanguard Group is now the biggest shareholder of Twitter with a 10.3% stake in the company. That's 82.4 million shares, worth $3.7 billion as of Friday's close.
That's an increase from December 2021, when Vanguard reported holding 67.2 million shares of Twitter, or about 8.4% of the company.
In early April, Musk was momentarily Twitter's largest shareholder by purchasing 73.5 million shares. A day later his disclosed stake dropped to 73.1 million shares or 9.1% of the company.
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Last week, former Twitter shareholders sued Musk, asserting that they missed out on the recent run-up in its stock price. They claim he waited too long to disclose a 9.2% stake in the social media company.
The shareholders said Musk made "materially false and misleading statements and omissions" by failing to reveal he had invested in Twitter by March 24 as required under federal law.
Musk Demands Vote On Sale: Musk tweeted that it would be "utterly indefensible" for Twitter to not put his offer to a shareholder vote.
Absolutely. It would be utterly indefensible not to put this offer to a shareholder vote. They own the company, not the board of directors.After making an offer to buy Twitter, on Thursday Musk said that he's "not sure" whether his takeover bid will be successful.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022
"I am not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it," Musk said while speaking at the TED 2022 conference in Vancouver.
He also said that he had a "plan B" if his bid was unsuccessful, but did not elaborate on what that would be.
Speaking at the conference, Musk said, "My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization."
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Photo: Courtesy of Tesla Owners Club Belgium on Flickr
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