once again looks poised to acquire Twitter after scrapping the deal he made to buy the social media giant for $44 billion in April.
Bloomberg first reported Tuesday that Musk planned to proceed with the deal after months of legal battles, according to the Associated Press. Musk is reportedly offering to buy the platform for $54.20 a share, the Associated Press reported. Twitter shares jumped by 13% to $47.95 Tuesday by the time trading closed, the Associated Press reported.
Musk has indicated that he intends to scratch policies on the platform he deemed anti-free speech.
But who exactly is Musk?
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Musk is a South Africa-born billionaire entrepreneur who serves as CEO of Tesla, a popular electric vehicle manufacturer, and SpaceX. Musk made an early fortune founding PayPal in 1999. EBay bought the company in 2002 for $1.5 billion, and Musk made $180 million from the deal, Time Magazine reported.
to integrate a computer into the human brain.
But outside of his ambitious projects, Musk is almost as known for his polarizing online persona. He is popular on Twitter, where he chimes in on politics, talks business openly and embraces the internet’s meme culture. Some of his tweets have landed him in legal trouble.
Musk was born on June 28, 1971.
He grew up in Pretoria, one of South Africa’s three capital cities. His mother is a Canadian-born South African model who was a finalist in the 1969 Miss South Africa competition. His father, Errol Musk, is an engineer. His parents separated in 1980.
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Forbes lists his net worth at $267.1 billion.
Musk was married to Canadian author Justine Wilson from 2000 to 2008. He was also married to English actress Talulah Riley from 2010 to 2016. Musk has six children with Wilson and two children with his ex-girlfriend, singer Grimes.
Musk has founded or co-founded several major companies. The list includes Tesla, SpaceX, OpenAI, Neuralink, the Boring Company and Starlink.
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Musk graduated in 1995 from the University of Pennsylvania with bachelor’s degrees in physics and business. He dropped out of a physics Ph.D program at Stanford.
Musk said he started his first venture, Zip2, a software company, in 1995 with $15,000 and a later round of $200,000 from investors, including his father. Zip2 sold for $300 million in 1999.
recently indicated he would support Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president in 2024, Musk has donated to both political parties over the years.
Still, opinions on Musk tend to be divided along party lines. Conservatives rallied behind Musk last year as he moved Tesla’s headquarters from California, a blue state, to Texas, a red state, and are supporting him now as he promised “free speech” on Twitter, where they say they have been censored.
Some Democrats were worried about the potential increased spread of misinformation on the platform under Musk’s control and the prospect of former President Donald Trump’s return to Twitter after he was permanently banned last year.
Musk was 41 in 2012 when he became a billionaire, Insider reported.
Musk’s 18-year-old daughter petitioned in court to change her name to match her gender identity, USA TODAY reported. The teen also cited wanting to sever ties with her father as a reason for requesting the change.
Business Insider reported that Musk welcomed twins with Shivon Zilis, an executive at Musk’s Neuralink, in November.
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