Elon Musk: why has Tesla boss bought Twitter shares, how much does he own and social media company share price

Elon Musk has become Twitter's largest shareholder with a 9.2% stake in the social media platform.

The Tesla boss made waves on Monday afternoon (4 April) after it emerged he had poured nearly $3 billion into the website.

Here’s all you need to know about why Musk has taken such a large slice of the Twitter pie and the company’s share price as a result...

Why has Elon Musk bought Twitter shares?

According to regulatory filing reports, Musk purchased approximately 73.5 million shares in Twitter.

His stake is considered a passive investment, which means he is a long-term investor looking to minimise his buying and selling of the shares.

He has been raising questions about the ability to communicate freely on Twitter, tweeting last month about free speech and the social media platform.

“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” he posted on Twitter.

In a separate Tweet, Musk said he was “giving serious thought” to creating a new social media platform.

Also last month, Musk asked a federal judge to nullify a subpoena from securities regulators and throw out a 2018 court agreement in which Musk had to have someone pre-approve his posts on Twitter.

Dan Ives of investment firm Wedbush Securities said of Musk’s buy in a client note early on Monday: “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.”

What is Twitter’s share price?

In the last 24 hours, Twitter's stock (TWTR) rose by nearly 30% on the New York Stock Exchange.

At the time of writing (5.20pm UK time), Twitter shares were prices at 50.12 USD, up from 39.3 at the previous close.