While all of that Twitter hullabaloo was happening, Musk tweeted that his next company purchase might just be an American institution: Coca-Cola. While this announcement might have been a joke, he’s also said that he wants to put illegal substances back into the formula. Which is absolutely a joke, since that would be banned.
When the original soft drink hit store shelves in 1885, it did contain an extraction of coca leaf, a raw form of an illegal substance, but the substance was both legal and common at the time. Only a few years later they started to phase the ingredient out.
The Bitter Twitter Bidder
On April fourth, 2022, Musk approved a contract that would designate him to Twitter's board of directors and ban him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the group. Less than ten days later, he made a forty-three billion dollar offer to buy Twitter, which got lots of people on the site...excited.
To try and stop him, Twitter's board adopted a shareholder rights plan that would make it more expensive for any single investor to own more than fifteen percent of the company without the board's approval. That didn't stop Musk.
Legal Proceedings
From there, things get a little more complicated. Musk found funding by getting loans against his Tesla stock, and Tesla stock plummeted – Musk lost about $30 billion of net worth. A month after announcing the takeover, Musk stated the deal was on hold following a report five percent of Twitter users were bots. Twitter shares dropped more than ten percent after the announcement.
Musk then tried to back out of the deal in July, followed by Twitter's Board of Directors responding they were committed to holding him to the transaction. On July twelfth, 2022, Musk was sued by Twitter for breaching a lawfully crucial agreement to buy Twitter.
Half and Half
Musk has described himself as half Democrat and half Republican, which means that neither side is all that happy with him. He's also described himself as nauseatingly pro-American, which makes another group of Americans angry with him. He's made personal political contributions totaling almost a fourth of a million dollars to both Democratic and Republican candidates since 2002.
In 2022 he spread a bit of ire, tweeting that the far left hates everyone, even themselves. He followed it up by pointing out he's no fan of the far right, either, and that there needs to be less hate and more love.
Big Spender
Musk has said that he's dedicated to getting rid of all his money, but that doesn't mean he can't spend it on some fun toys. In 1989, a Long Island couple purchased an abandoned storage unit for a hundred dollars, hoping to, we have to assume, store some stuff. When they opened it, they found it was occupied by a Lotus Esprit, the car that James Bond drives in the 1977 movie “The Spy Who Loved Me.” In fact, it was the very same car.
The car is known as “Wet Nellie,” a name that comes from “Little Nellie,” which had been featured in a previous movie.