Elon Musk Ousted as Twitter’s Largest Shareholder After Takeover Attempt

Tesla Inc’s Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has been ousted as the largest shareholder of Twitter after the Vanguard Group upped its stake in the social media giant.

As of December last year, the Group holds 70.4 million shares of Twitter, or 8.8% of the company’s value, and per the current filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), this stake has been increased to 82.4 million shares or 10.3% of the company.

Elon Musk snapped up a 9.2% stake in the company last week, becoming the largest shareholder at the time. Since Musk’s move was revealed, a number of developments have risen up, further casting doubts on the future of the social media giant. Besides making a series of proposals such as lowering the subscription fee to the Twitter Blue service, Elon Musk has made a $43 billion offer to buy the social media company and take it private.

The increase in the stake of the Vanguard Group is seen as a very calculated approach to either stall or prevent Musk’s hostile takeover. Per Musk’s move to acquire Twitter, he said his position as a stakeholder will have to be re-evaluated if the offer which he termed as the best is not considered.

The Frantic Race for Decentralized Social Media

Twitter is described by Musk as the de-factor town hall for communications and that the current operational modalities of the company do not favor the tenets of free speech in a democratic setting. This he noted is the reason why he wants to buy the company in order to help unleash its true potential.

While what Elon Musk is projecting for Twitter is not the ideal version of what a decentralized social media platform will represent, the tenets both will uphold seem correlated. As the Web3.0 ecosystem is growing, the clamor to develop a platform where users will be the sole owner of their own data has continued to grow with many projects including Jack Dorsey’s backed Bluesky project one of such.

While Twitter’s existing shareholders seem somewhat against the takeover as evident in the lawsuit filed against the Tesla boss, the majority of followers of the world’s richest man seem to be in support of the reforms he is bringing to Twitter.