Who owned Twitter before Elon Musk bought it?
After months of legal squabbles, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has taken over Twitter via a $44 billion deal. Who owned the platform before the sale?
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has taken over Twitter in a $44 billion sale, ending months of legal disputes with the social media platform’s previous owners.
Musk started buying Twitter shares in January of this year, and offered to buy the company in April, at which point he had already bought up 9.2 percent of its shares.
Jack Dorsey co-founded the company in 2006, together with Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, but institutional investors largely owned Twitter at the time of Musk’s offer to buy it.
Giant fund managers
The Vanguard Group, an investment management company based in Pennsylvania, had the most shares at 10.3 percent.
Morgan Stanley Investment Management had the third largest stake, following the billionaire, with 8.4 percent. Two other leading fund managers, BlackRock and State Street, each owned 4.75 percent of the company. Former CEO Dorsey held 2.4 percent.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal owned 128,000 shares (valued at $7 million), finance chief Ned Segal had 394,000 (valued at $21 million), while Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust and safety, held 600,000 (valued at $32 million). All three executives have been relieved of their services.
Twitter now a private company
Musk is now taking the company private as part of his takeover deal. Shareholders had agreed to sell their stake in the firm to him in September for $54.20 a share, and they will be compensated for them in cash.
Employees were able to acquire Twitter shares at discounted prices beginning in 2013, when the platform went public. As the company’s stock is now delisted, these employees will be paid out in cash for their holdings.