Buyer’s remorse or subtle jab?
Elon Musk certainly didn’t hold back during Tesla’s Q3 Profit Call Pressured on Wednesday about the future of Twitter under his leadership. Musk is likely to complete its $44 billion acquisition of the $44 billion social media company soon.
During the conversation, an unidentified investor asked Musk whether his Twitter purchase, along with all his stakes in his other companies — namely, SpaceX, Neuralink and Tesla — would set the stage for one superstructure under which all companies operate, taking the example of Google operating under the Alphabet umbrella.
“It’s not clear to me what the overlap is. It’s not zero, but it’s — I think we’re reaching it. I’m not worried about it,” Musk said bluntly. “I am not an investor.”
Musk has sold Tesla shares in anticipation of his Twitter acquisition, an investor told: on Twitter in August that “In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don’t get through, it’s important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock.”
Yes.
In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal *and* some stock partners fail, it’s important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 10, 2022
He posted the Tweet after he sold 7.92 million Tesla shareswhich were worth about $6.88 billion at the time.
During Wednesday’s call, Musk insisted there would be no “portfolio-style investments” in his companies.
“I’m an engineer and a production person and a technologist,” he said. “So I work and design and develop products. That’s what I do.”
Musk then became candid about what he pays for Twitter — he set the price at $54.20 a share when he bid on the social media giant in April, for which the deal is expected to close.
“Obviously, myself and the other investors are clearly overpaying for Twitter right now. The long-term potential for Twitter, in my opinion, is, in my view, greater than its current value,” he said.
While it remains unclear what changes Musk plans to make to Twitter if the deal closes, he has hinted at the future creation of a super-app called “X”.
Buying Twitter is an accelerator for creating X, the everything app
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2022
He has also publicly complained about the number of spam and bot accounts on the social media site, with problems with the accurate disclosure of data on such accounts being the main reason he tried to end the deal in July.
Twitter was down about 20.5% in a one-year period from Thursday morning.
