Elon Musk and Twitter: A timeline
January 31: Musk begins building up his Twitter stake
Musk starts quietly buying up Twitter shares, building his stake in the company. But it would be months before he disclosed this fact to the public.
March 14: Musk's Twitter stake tops 5%
Musk's stake in Twitter tops 5%, but that fact is not disclosed until the following month. Musk was obligated to disclose his stake within 10 days of crossing the 5% threshold, but waited 21 days to do so. During that time, he continued building up his stake.
March 24: Asking whether Twitter should change
The billionaire begins to make pointed statements about the platform from his account. "Twitter algorithm should be open source," he wrote, with a poll for users to vote "yes" or "no."
The following day, Musk tweets out another poll to his followers: "Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?"
March 26: Musk reaches out to Jack Dorsey
Musk reaches out to Twitter cofounder and former CEO Jack Dorsey to "discuss the future direction of social media," according to a company filing later put out by the company. The two tech founders are known to have a bit of a billionaire bromance on and off Twitter.
April 3: Twitter leadership meets to discuss Musk
Twitter's board and some of its leadership team meet with representatives from Wilson Sonsini, a law firm, and J.P. Morgan to discuss the possibility of Musk joining the company's board, according a later securities filing. Dorsey is said to have told the board that "he and Mr. Musk were friends," according to the filing.
In the meeting, the Twitter board discussed wanting Musk to agree to "'standstill' provisions"," according to the filing. This would effectively "limit his public statements regarding Twitter, including the making of unsolicited public proposals to acquire Twitter (but not private proposals) without the prior consent of the Twitter Board."
April 4: Surprise! Musk becomes Twitter's largest shareholder
Musk is revealed to be Twitter's largest individual shareholder, with a more than 9% stake in the company.
News of the purchase sends shares of the social media company soaring more than 20% in early trading and kicks off a wave of speculation about how Musk might push for changes on the platform.
April 5: Musk agrees to join the board
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announces Musk will join Twitter's board of directors. "Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board," Agrawal says in a post on Twitter.
As part of the appointment, Musk agrees not to acquire more than 14.9% of the company's shares while he remains on the board. His term on the board is set to go through 2024, according to a regulatory filing.
April 10: Just kidding. Musk ditches the board
Agrawal announces that Musk has decided not to join the board after all. "I believe this is for the best," Agrawal writes in a letter to the Twitter team.
The reversal opens the door for Musk to pursue a greater stake in the company -- and frees him to tweet his many thoughts about the company.
April 14: Musk offers to buy Twitter and 'unlock' its potential
Musk stuns the industry by making an offer to acquire all the shares in Twitter he does not own at a valuation of $41.4 billion. The cash offer represents a 38% premium over the company's closing price on April 1, the last trading day before Musk disclosed that he had become the company's biggest shareholder.
"I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy. However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company," Musk writes in his offer letter. "Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it."
April 15: The poison pill
Twitter's board of directors adopts a "poison pill" provision, a limited-term shareholder rights plan that potentially makes it harder for Musk to acquire the company.
April 21: Musk lines up $46.5 billion in financing
Musk lines up $46.5 billion in financing for the deal, including two debt commitment letters from Morgan Stanley and other unnamed financial institutions and one equity commitment letter from himself, according to a regulatory filing.
The billionaire also reveals that he has not received a formal response from Twitter a week after his acquisition offer. He said he is "seeking to negotiate" a definite acquisition agreement and "is prepared to begin such negotiations immediately" — an apparent reversal from his statement in his acquisition offer letter that it would be his "best and final" offer.
Although he is the richest person in the world, much of Musk's wealth is tied up in Tesla stock, and some followers of the company speculate that it could be challenging for Musk to raise debt against the historically volatile stock.
April 25: Twitter agrees to sell itself to Elon Musk
Twitter announces that it has agreed to sell itself to Musk in a deal valued at around $44 billion. At a conference later in the day, Musk describes his offer to buy Twitter in characteristically sweeping terms as being about "the future of civilization," not just making money.
At an all-hands meeting that afternoon, Twitter employees raise questions about everything from what the deal would mean for their compensation to whether former US President Donald Trump would be let back on the platform.
April 29: Musk cashes out billions in Tesla stock
Filings reveal Musk sold $8.5 billion of his Tesla stock in the three days after Twitter board agreed to the sale for an average of $883.09 per share. The filings did not disclose the reason for the sale, but Musk appeared to be raising funds to buy Twitter.
May 4: With a little help from his billionaire friends
Musk raises another $7 billion in financing for the deal. The new investors include Oracle founder Larry Ellison, cryptocurrency platform Binance and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, according to a filing.
May 10: Musk says he would reinstate Trump's account
Musk confirms what many have assumed for weeks: he would reverse Twitter's Trump ban if his deal to buy the company is completed.
"I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump, I think that was a mistake," Musk said. "I would reverse the perma-ban. ... Banning Trump from Twitter didn't end Trump's voice, it will amplify it among the right and this is why it's morally wrong and flat out stupid."
May 6: Musk's lofty goals for Twitter, revealed
Musk aims to increase Twitter's annual revenue to $26.4 billion by 2028, up from $5 billion last year, according to a New York Times report, citing Musk's pitch deck presented to investors. To achieve that lofty goal, Musk intends to bolster Twitter's subscription revenue and build up a payments business while decreasing the company's reliance on advertising sales, according to the report.
May 12: A partial hiring freeze and executive departures
Twitter confirms to CNN Business that the platform is pausing most hiring and backfills, except for "business critical" roles, and pulling back on other non-labor costs ahead of the acquisition. In addition, Twitter says general manager of consumer, Kayvon Beykpour, and revenue product lead, Bruce Falck, are leaving the company.
May 13: Twitter deal 'temporarily on hold'
Musk tweets that the deal is on hold, linking to a Reuters report from nearly two weeks earlier, about Twitter's most recent disclosure about its amount of spam and fake accounts. The figure cited in the report, however, is in line with prior quarterly disclosures.
"Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users," Musk tweeted.
Shares of the social media site plummet after Musk's announcement, dropping more than 10% at market open. Two hours after announcing the hold, Musk says he remains set on purchasing Twitter. "Still committed to acquisition," he wrote.
Later in the day, Musk says his team is testing Twitter's numbers and "picked 100 as the sample size number, because that is what Twitter uses to calculate <5% fake/spam/duplicate."
May 14: Oops. NDA problems?
Musk tweets out that Twitter's legal team accused him of breaking a nondisclosure agreement when the billionaire revealed the platform's sample size for automated user checks is allegedly just 100 users.
"Twitter legal just called to complain that I violated their NDA by revealing the bot check sample size is 100! This actually happened," wrote Musk.
May 16: Poop emoji
The standoff over bot accounts continues as Musk exchanges a series of tweets with Agrawal over the issue. After Agrawal carefully explains how Twitter attempts to combat and measure spam accounts, Musk responds with a poop emoji.
Musk follows up with a somewhat more thoughtful question. "So how do advertisers know what they're getting for their money?" Musk asked. "This is fundamental to the financial health of Twitter," he added.
May 17: Musk says Twitter deal 'cannot move forward.' Twitter disagrees
Musk announces that his acquisition of Twitter "cannot move forward" until he sees more information about the prevalence of spam accounts, claiming that the social media platform falsified numbers in filings. Without citing a source, he claims in a tweet that Twitter is "20% fake/spam accounts" and suggests Twitter's previous filings with the SEC were misleading.
Later in the day, Musk posts a poll to his Twitter followers: "Twitter claims that >95% of daily active users are real, unique humans. Does anyone have that experience?" before calling on the SEC to evaluate the platform's numbers. "Hello @SECGov, anyone home?" Musk tweets, in an apparent attempt to get the regulator to look into the matter.
In a statement, Twitter says it remains "committed to completing the transaction on the agreed price and terms as promptly as practicable." Later, the company says it intends to "enforce the merger agreement."
The platform's new crisis misinformation policy is designed to slow the spread of viral falsehoods during natural disasters, armed conflict and public health emergencies.
Elon Musk is reportedly demanding that Tesla office workers return to in-person work or leave the company, according to leaked emails.
One of Elon Musk's children has petitioned a California court to recognize her new name and gender, saying she no longer wishes to be related to her father "in any way, shape or form."
The Vatican kept mum but the Tesla CEO tweeted a pic of him, Pope Francis and his four kids. The pope often meets privately with the rich and powerful, usually making an appeal for them to do more good.
Twitter's former cybersecurity chief alleges the company is reckless and negligent, warning of grave threats to national security and democracy.
Musk is in charge of the social media platform and has fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and General Counsel Vijaya Gadde. But questions remain about how the deal will play out. Here's the latest.
With the Digital Services Act, the European Unions aims to make platforms and search engines more accountable for illegal and harmful content including hate speech, scams and disinformation.
Elon Musk, Twitter Inc.’s new owner and until recently the world’s richest person, has spent most of the past two months pouring his time, energy and finances into the highest-profile social network on the internet. But finally, Musk seems to be running out of gas.
New Twitter Inc. owner Elon Musk has outsourced several controversial decisions — like whether he should leave the Twitter CEO job — to public polling on the network, saying he intends to follow the will of the people. But the results of such surveys can be easily gamed by bots, according to new research.
Like clockwork, Tesla reported Autopilot safety statistics, once every quarter, starting in 2018. Last year, those reports ceased. Around the same time, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began demanding crash reports from automakers that sell so-called advanced driver assistance systems such as Autopilot. And those numbers don't look good for Autopilot.
Signs of softening demand and heightened competition have investors worried. And then there's CEO Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter.
Twitter says it will ease up on its 3-year-old ban on political advertising, the latest change by Elon Musk as he tries to pump up revenue after purchasing the social media platform last year.
Lawyers for Tesla shareholders suing the electric vehicle maker's CEO Elon Musk over a misleading tweet urged a federal judge this week to reject the billionaire's request to move an upcoming trial to Texas from California.
While still grappling with the fallout from a company he did take private, beleaguered billionaire Elon Musk is now facing a trial over a company he didn't. Musk claimed in a 2018 tweet that he had lined up the financing to pay for a $72 billion buyout of Tesla. But the buyout never materialized and now Musk faces a class-action lawsuit on behalf of investors who owned Tesla stock for a 10-day period in August 2018.
A 2016 video that purported to show the self-driving capabilities of a Tesla car was staged, a senior engineer testified.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Tesla Inc. both count Elon Musk as chief executive officer. But while Tesla has withered since the boss embarked on his takeover of Twitter, SpaceX is flourishing — some even suggest that this is because of, rather than in spite of, its CEO playing a less-active role.
New research shows climate misinformation has been flourishing on Twitter since Elon Musk bought the platform last year.
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, thousands of volunteer software developers have been using a crucial Twitter tool to comb the platform for calls for help — including people posting their location inside collapsed buildings — and connect people with rescue organizations to help them. But they could soon lose access to this tool unless they pay Twitter a monthly fee of at least $100 — prohibitive for many volunteers and nonprofits.
The changes could bring the cost of a new generation of vehicles to about $25,000.
Twitter’s move to purge inactive accounts is fueling outrage among the bereaved, who visit the accounts to mourn and remember their lost loved ones.
Ella Irwin quit Friday, shortly after Twitter owner Elon Musk publicly complained about the platform’s handling of posts about transgender topics. She confirms her departure, but isn't saying why she left.
Current and former employees are suing Twitter over bonuses they say the social media company failed to pay despite promises it would.
The restrictions could result in users being locked out of Twitter for the day after scrolling through several hundred tweets.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended himself Thursday against accusations that he traffics in racist and hateful online conspiracy theories, testifying at a House hearing on government censorship.
Elon Musk may want to send “tweet” back to the birds, but the ubiquitous term for posting on the site he now calls X is here to stay — at least for now.
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has threatened to sue researchers who documented an increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased last year by Elon Musk.
“Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X,” Musk wrote in a post Sunday on the platform. “All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.”
Elon Musk says his potential in-person fight with Mark Zuckerberg would be streamed live on his social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
The new CEO of the company formerly known as Twitter says she’s spent much of the past eight weeks trying to get big brands back to advertising on the social media platform that’s been in upheaval since it was bought last year by Elon Musk.
Now, the platform formerly known as Twitter only displays an article's lead image and a link to the story.
In an on-stage interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit, Musk also apologized for endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Days after Elon Musk’s expletive-ridden rant, Walmart is joining Disney, IBM, NBCUniversal, Comcast and a growing flock of advertisers fleeing X amid concerns about hate speech.
He's spread memes — and sometimes misinformation — about illegal immigration, alleged election fraud and transgender policies.