Twitter users woke up April 4 and found the words “Elon” and “Elon Musk” trending on the site — not because the world’s richest, most-followed businessman had caused a stir with his futuristic companies, but because he’d disclosed a major stake in Twitter Inc.
Suddenly, Musk was Twitter’s largest individual shareholder, with more than 9% of the company, and speculation swirled about how he would influence the network’s future. He’d been frequently tweeting ideas for revamping the social media platform. Over the next week, Musk would accept an offer to join Twitter’s board of directors and, in a sudden reversal, reject that offer five days later, leaving the company’s management, employees, investors and interested observers guessing about his plans.
