Who owns Twitter and when was it founded?
NEWS broke late Thursday, October 27, 2022, that Elon Musk had taken over Twitter.
However, many Twitter users want to know who owns the social media platform, which was previously owned by various shareholders.
Who owns Twitter?
Before Elon Musk took over as the company's singular owner, Twitter and its shares were divided by several investment organizations, private companies, retail businesses, and individual stakeholders that work for the app.
Pennsylvania-based investment management firm The Vanguard Group owned the most shares of Twitter.
With The Vanguard Group's Twitter stake at 8.95 percent, they were the platform's largest shareholder.
The company with the second-highest share percentage was BlackRock Fund Advisors.
The New York City-based public organization owned 4.66 percent of Twitter.
SSgA Funds Management Inc ranked third, while Fidelity Management & Research and Pentwater Capital Management LP respectfully ranked fourth and fifth in terms of ownership.
But as of October 27, 2022, Twitter is a privately-owned company owned by Elon Musk, who bought out all other shareholders for a whopping $44billion.
When was Twitter founded?
On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey, Christopher Isaac Stone, Noah E Glass, Jeremy LaTrasse, and Evan Williams founded Twitter.
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The app resulted from the remains of Williams and Glass' fizzled-out podcast startup Odeo.
Stone, LaTrasse, and Dorsey joined Odeo sometime later, which then evolved into Twitter.
Launched in July of that year, the platform is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
On November 29, 2021, Dorsey revealed that he was stepping down from his position as CEO.
In his announcement, co-founder Dorsey, who owned 2.4 percent of the company, stated that Parag Agrawal would take over as CEO.
Dorsey shared: "I've decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders.
"My trust in Parag as Twitter's CEO is deep. His work over the past 10 years has been transformational.
"I'm deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It's his time to lead."
However, on the same day that Musk bought Twitter, he promptly fired Agrawal and changed his personal bio to read "Chief Twit."
Did Elon Musk buy Twitter?
On April 25, 2022, Twitter's board and Elon Musk reached an agreement about the latter buying the platform for $44billion and making it a privately owned company.
Musk stated: "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.
"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."
However, the above-mentioned deal fell out in July 2022, but the talks resumed months later in October.
On Tuesday, October 4, Twitter's investment relations account tweeted: "We received the letter from the Musk parties which they have filed with the SEC.
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"The intention of the Company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share."
As of October 27, 2022, Musk is now the sole owner of Twitter.
