Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates on Wednesday took a swipe at Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk’s plan to buy microblogging site Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) in a $44 billion deal.
What Happened: The 66-year old entrepreneur and investor said he is not sure about what the motives are behind the world’s richest man buying the social media company, a platform that Musk has hailed as “the bedrock of a functioning democracy” and where he has promised to return free speech.
“He actually could make it worse,” Gates said at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit.
The veteran Microsoft co-founder was quick to add that it's not “his track record,” implying Musk’s success with Tesla, SpaceX, and past business successes.
“How does he feel about something that says vaccines kill people or that Bill Gates is tracking people? It’s not totally clear what he is going to do.”
Gates in the same interview said that he has only “positive things to say about Elon. If he makes Twitter worse, fine, I’ll speak out about that, but I wouldn’t assume that’s what’s going to happen.”
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Why It Matters: Gates's comments come days after Musk confirmed Microsoft co-founder had half a billion-dollar short position on Tesla. It also follows Musk’s hostile takeover bid of Twitter.
The world’s richest man has been in talks with private equity firms and banks to fund the mega takeover expected to close later this year.
Musk reportedly plans to focus on improving Twitter’s bottom line, a plan that could include job cuts and monetizing tweets including potential subscription services to drive recurring revenue.
Price Action: Tesla closed 4.77% higher at $952.6 on Wednesday. Twitter closed 0.4% higher at $49.
