Elon Musk continues to live his double-life. On one side, he is a brilliant entrepreneur who has figured out profitable business models for electric cars and space exploration and was briefly the world's richest man. His other side is being a truly committed social media troll.
And, it's honestly hard to figure out which identity he enjoys more.
His latest foray involved a screenshot of a text message exchange between Elon Musk and Bill Gates. Musk was answering another user's inquiry about the veracity of the screenshots. He confirmed their authenticity and then provided further details:
According to Musk, Gates reached out to him to discuss philanthropic efforts centering around climate change. Musk asked him if it was true that he had a $500 million short bet against Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA). Gates affirmed that this was correct. Then, Musk responded: "Sorry, I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change."
This continues his feud against some of the most prominent billionaires of the previous generation including Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett.
Twitter Acquisition
Like many billionaires, Musk has also secured control of maybe the most influential media platform - Twitter (Nasdaq: TWTR). For many months, he had been critical of the website's censorship policies and banning of certain users. He launched his efforts on the site and after some initial discussions about the possibility of a 'poison pill' that would preclude the possibility of an acquisition, the social media website's Board of Directors seems likely to accept the offer.
The deal would take the company private at a price of $54.20 per share and a $44 billion valuation which is about an 8% premium to the current price and below the company's 52-week high. For many shareholders, this price has to be considered a disappointment given its influence and power.
This has sparked fears among liberals who are skeptical of Musk and see 'free speech' concerns as often being a trojan horse for other issues. Many believe he will silence voices that he disagrees with, although he has stressed that he won't be doing so.
Musk is reportedly selling about $21 billion in Tesla stock and borrowing $25.5 billion from Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) to fund the deal.