Who owned Twitter before Elon Musk? Between thousands of staff losing their job and policies quietly changing, Twitter is not what it used to be. In addition, in April 2023, Musk merged Twitter with a new shell company called X Corp and, consequently, Twitter Inc virtually does not exist anymore. Indeed, the latest update has been the announcement of the total rebranding of both the company and the website itself, now called X.com rather than Twitter.com.

Overall, all of this signals significant developments, but some balances have now been irreversibly broken.

Who owned Twitter before Elon Musk?

Jack Dorsey, along with Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, launched Twitter in 2006. According to a regulatory filing, institutional investors formerly held control over the platform, with the Vanguard Group holding the largest position (10.3%) at that time. Investment firms BlackRock and StateStreet both held 4.75%, while Morgan Stanley Investment Management had 8.4%.

With a 10.3% stake in Twitter as of April 2022, The Vanguard Group overtook Musk as the company’s largest stakeholder prior to his takeover.

The previous CEO, Parag Agrawal, also had substantial holdings (around 128,000 shares), which would be worth almost $7m under Musk’s current agreement, which stipulates that each share is worth $54.20.

Agrawal was initially scheduled to earn a $60m severance package in addition to the proceeds from the sale of the shares. It is still unclear, though, whether Musk still plans to uphold this agreement.

Does Elon Musk own Twitter now?

It took Elon Musk some time but he has completed his original $44bn deal to purchase Twitter. The billionaire, who is the largest stakeholder and CEO of Tesla, began negotiating with Twitter earlier in 2022.

Musk began purchasing Twitter stock in January 2022 and increased his holdings by about 5% by March. He also began contacting Twitter board members to inform them about his rising stocks, as well as starting a conversation about the potential of joining Twitter’s board.

On 4 April 2022, it was disclosed that Musk had quickly surpassed other investors to possess the largest share in Twitter, with a 9% interest valued at around $3bn.

Musk decided to postpone his purchase of the company because he claimed to need more details on fake and spam accounts on the site. He then withdrew from the deal because Twitter allegedly first refused to release this information and then provided what Musk described as inaccurate stats. Twitter executives refuted this claim.

This caused a chain reaction of legal actions: Twitter sued Musk to pressure him into closing the deal, but Musk filed a countersuit. A Delaware judge ended up mediating both parties and setting a 28 October 2022 closing date on the agreement.

Why did Elon Musk buy Twitter?

Musk justified his purchase of the social media platform (on Twitter, of course) by saying: “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”

The Tesla CEO reiterated that his reasoning goes beyond financial profit, but he did it to “help humanity”.

Musk also announced that the deal was sealed by tweeting a video of himself entering the Twitter HQ carrying a sink, captioning it “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”

Since his acquisition, Musk has been determined to make significant changes, mostly regarding free speech and inactive users. “Twitter cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said without consequences!”, he added.

Following Musk’s takeover, it was announced Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and legal and policy executive Vijaya Gadde are leaving the company. One of Twitter’s co-founders Biz Stone confirmed their departure via a tweet: “Thank you to [Agrawal], [Gadde] and [Segal] for the collective contribution to Twitter. Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each!”

Why did Twitter change to X?

Musk’s liking towards the letter X is not news, also seen in X.com, which then became PayPal, SpaceX, the artificial intelligence company X.ai and X Corp, which used to be Twitter Inc. On 23 July 2023, the owner announced on the social media platform that the world-renowned and iconic blue bird logo would not exist anymore and that it would be replaced by an interim ‘X’ on a black background. This change is already visible on the website, now called X.com rather than Twitter.com and, as Musk said, the corporation will soon “bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds”.

The reason behind this branding revolution sits within the purpose of the app, which will aim in the near future to become an all-rounder, an “everything app”, involving “audio, video, messaging, payment/banking”, as CEO Linda Yaccarino explained, to make it a “global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities”. Therefore, Musk and his collaborators care to make it clear that X is not the same website that it was before his takeover.

Like everything Musk does, this decision has received mixed reviews. While some applaud it, others did not hesitate to share their disagreement with the decision. Marques Brownlee, for instance, a web video producer who has had a Twitter account since 2009, said that he is still going to call it Twitter despite the app’s rebranding to X. Musk replied: “Not for long”.

How has Twitter’s share price fluctuated?

Twitter’s stock price was declining in March due to rising interest rates and impending inflation. The social media platform’s advertising expenditures decreased, resulting in a decline in the stock price from $63 at its high in November to $33.

Musk began buying Twitter shares in January 2022 and by March had acquired a 5% stake in the firm. With a 9% stake, he became Twitter’s largest shareholder in April. The share price increased by about 50% as the news of these investments spread.

Musk put the transaction “temporarily on hold” after making an offer to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per share, which led him to try to back out. The price of Twitter stock dropped back to the previous $33 share price range when Musk filed a countersuit against Twitter after the company sued him for backing out.

Finally, after Musk approved the $44bn deal, Twitter’s prices increased by more than 12% once more, and ever since the social media business accepted the proposal, the share price has been between $50 and $54 ($53.70 to $54.20).

When it comes to the actual value of the company, Twitter has seen several major advertisers leave the platform, which made its stake drop by 56%. Indeed, in January 2023, the social media company was valued at less than $20bn. However, the company’s market capitalisation in July 2023 reached $41.09bn.

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