Elon Musk and the fear of the activist investor

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Elon Musk is not shy about the changes he'd like to see with Twitter. So now that he is the largest shareholder in the social media giant, some fear he could become an activist investor.

Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:11.9	This is the Indicated From Planet Money.
0:13.4	I'm Patty Hirsch.
0:14.6	And I'm Edrian Ma.
0:16.2	There was some drama over the weekend involving Twitter and the world's richest man, Elon Musk.
0:21.8	You might have heard he recently bought a 9.2% stake in the company, making him its largest
0:26.7	shareholder.
0:27.7	He has even more shares than Twitter's co-founders.
0:31.2	The company said it appointed Musk to its board of directors.
0:34.6	He accepted.
0:36.0	And then almost immediately he turned around and said, no thanks.
0:40.5	But I don't think it's going to be the last that we hear about Musk and Twitter.
0:44.8	And because Musk filed a certain type of paperwork with the SEC, the Securities and Exchange
0:49.1	Commission, and because his stake is less than 20%, Wall Street considers him a passive
0:54.7	investor.
0:56.0	But someone who buys companies stock and holds it doesn't really get involved in the running
0:59.9	of the company.
1:00.9	And most people who watch Twitter and keep an eye on Musk, you probably know that he's
1:06.4	not a passive guy, right?
1:08.3	Pretty much the opposite.
1:09.3	He's loud and proud and opinionated.
1:13.0	And he's engaged in a lot of opining on Twitter.
	...

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