In April 2022, X’s (formerly Twitter) board of directors unanimously agreed to Elon Musk’s offer to purchase the platform for $44 billion, bringing the 18-year-old company under the control of one of the world’s richest people.
At the time, NBC News reported that X stockholders would receive $54.20 in cash for each share of X common stock once the transaction closed.
Prior to buying X, the South African-born billionaire had criticized the platform for not living up to free speech principles. At the time, he had more than 81 million Twitter followers, making him one of the most popular figures on the platform.
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“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement after his purchase of the platform was approved. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
No sooner had Musk taken control of X than he decided to shake up the company, resulting in the retrenchment of several workers. Some former workers of the company subsequently filed a lawsuit accusing Musk of violating their arbitration agreements by failing to pay them certain fees after he bought the site.
Technology journalist Jacob Silverman and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press also filed a motion in court seeking to unseal the investor list. After being forced by the court, Elon Musk‘s X Corp. recently disclosed a list of shareholders for its parent company, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
One of the names on the list of investors that has caught media attention is Sean “Diddy” Combs, who has several business ventures in various industries. As of October 2020, Diddy was close to $1 billion after building a successful business empire in addition to his music career.
A fund linked to Combs was among the investors in Musk’s bid to purchase Twitter/X. Other investors in X came from politics and entertainment, including Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud, Bill Ackman, Larry Ellison, and Marc Andreessen.
Silverman, the journalist who worked with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told Fortune.com that the public needed to know the individuals behind the platform.
“It’s important that the public knows who owns the platform, who might influence its governance, and who Musk owes,” Silverman said.
