Factbox: 'You'll be glad you bought a flamethrower': The tweets of Elon Musk
17/08/2022 04:33
Aug 16 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk, the chief
executive of electric automaker Tesla Inc TSLA.O and rocket
company SpaceX, on Tuesday tweeted that he was buying soccer
club Manchester United MANU.N , without offering any details.
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Musk has a history of being unconventional, posting
irreverent tweets, and it was not immediately clear whether he
planned to pursue a Manchester United deal.
Below are some other tweets by Musk - who has more than 103
million followers - which have taken investors, Twitter users,
Twitter's TWTR.N board and the rest of his audience than by
surprise.
May 13, 2022: "Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending
details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed
represent less than 5% of users." Twitter had agreed with Musk
on his $43 billion takeover of the social media company, after
initial hiccups, and its shares fell sharply after Musk's tweet.
The billionaire later terminated the deal saying that
Twitter withheld information about these accounts, and the two
sides are currently readying for a trial scheduled to begin Oct.
17 in Delaware.
April 27, 2022: "Next I'm buying Coca-Cola to put the
cocaine back in." Musk's tweet, an apparent joke, came days
after he made his buyout offer for Twitter.
Aug. 7, 2018: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420.
Funding secured." Musk was not close to taking Tesla private and
had not lined up financing, and the number 420 is closely
associated with marijuana use. Tesla shares jumped, and the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission went on to sue Musk, saying
he had misled investors.
April 1, 2018: "Despite intense efforts to raise money,
including a last-ditch mass sale of Easter Eggs, we are sad to
report that Tesla has gone completely and totally bankrupt,"
Musk said in an April Fool's day tweet. Tesla shares fell 5.1%
the following day.
Jan. 27, 2018: "When the zombie apocalypse happens, you'll
be glad you bought a flamethrower. Works against hordes of the
undead or your money back!" Musk's Boring Co sold flamethrowers
and hats to raise funds for its Hyperloop transportation
project.
July 25, 2017: "I've talked to Mark about this. His
understanding of the subject is limited." Musk was targeting
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook owner Meta
Platforms Inc META.O , who downplayed Musk's warnings about the
danger of artificial intelligence.
March 12, 2015: "The rumor that I'm building a spaceship to
get back to my home planet Mars is totally untrue." Musk has
said he wanted his company SpaceX to develop a rocket capable of
an unpiloted trip to Mars in 2022, with a crewed flight two
years later.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Kenneth
Maxwell)
((Shubham.Kalia@thomsonreuters.com;))