tech billionaire
Musk’s new Twitter prank: Man United purchase was a joke
Elon Musk is rich and eccentric. photo
© Susan Walsh/AP/dpa
Elon Musk to buy Manchester United? The Tesla boss keeps irritating his Twitter followers. The tech billionaire later gave the answer himself.
The eccentric tech billionaire Elon Musk first caused a stir in the sports world with his tweet about the purchase of the English football club Manchester United, then he backtracked.
“This is a long standing joke on Twitter. I don’t buy sports teams,” the Tesla CEO tweeted. “Standup is my side hustle.” The 51-year-old had previously written on the social network, where he has more than 103 million followers: “I’m also buying Manchester United. You’re welcome.”
Even then it was to be assumed that it was more of one of his often bizarre jokes. Because in the same Twitter thread he had previously announced: “To be clear, I support the left half of the Republican Party and the right half of the Democratic Party!”
Musk’s announcement of the possible purchase of the troubled club already had more than 470,000 “likes” after six hours. Previously, some fans of the “Red Devils”, who made a false start in the Premier League as the bottom of the table, had asked Musk via Twitter to consider buying the club.
Musk is unpredictable. He is currently in a legal battle with Twitter himself because he wants to call off the roughly $44 billion takeover of the short message service. And the visionary is known for his Twitter antics. In late April, two days after Twitter’s board of directors accepted his unsolicited offer to buy the company, he tweeted: “Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to mix the cocaine back in.”
It is unclear whether he simply wanted to make a joke again, amuse his followers or influence the stock market price. The purchase of Man United, one of the largest clubs in the world, would have cost Musk over two billion euros according to the current stock market valuation.