Elon Musk, TEO (Trolling Executive Officer)
Elon Musk, TEO (Trolling Executive Officer)
The Tesla CEO plays an impressive master class in how to rile up Wall Street, and disrupt Big Tech
Elon Musk just pulled off a master class in trolling with a tweet that sent Silicon Valley’s notoriously woke tech workers diving for their nearest safe space. And while it may be fun and games for the world’s richest man, there are some real-world consequences.
The billionaire’s four-word post — “I made an offer” — ricocheted from Wall Street trading floors to Washington’s top financial cop. Twitter called an emergency board meeting to fend off Musk’s $43 billion hostile takeover bid, and the financial press made it their top story.
Only the world’s richest human, with the reach of 81 million Twitter followers, could be the provocateur of a scheme right out of HBO’s “Succession.” But the Tesla CEO’s maneuver has some real consequences that will send the stock price into a roller coaster ride and ultimately hurt mom-and-pop investors.
Musk has been battling the Securities and Exchange Commission over regulatory investigations into how one of his tweets may have manipulated the stock price of Tesla. And now his hostile takeover bid for Twitter will impact the company’s 764 million shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange.