Ron Baron, CEO of Baron Capital and one of Tesla’s largest shareholders, said Elon Musk’s 9.2% stake in Twitter and the accompanying board seat were not significant.
“I think it’s pointless,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday. “It simply came to our notice then. $ 3 billion for a person worth $ 300 billion. He has a Tesla worth one trillion [and] On the way to $ 3 or $ 4 trillion. “
Baron, who has been a Tesla investor since 2014, added: “There’s no way this could make sense to him.”
Baron said his firm decided not to invest in Jack Dorsey’s social media platform when it learned that Musk was supporting the company and taking a seat on the board. In fact, most investors look at a company as well as those who support it before buying shares.
Although Twitter’s stock rose 27% after Musk’s investment announcement on Monday, the company’s share price has not performed particularly well over the past few years compared to other US technology giants such as Apple and Microsoft.
Mask’s purchase comes less than two weeks after he criticized the company, polling people on Twitter to see if it adhered to freedom of speech principles. “Given that Twitter de facto acts as a public town square, failure to adhere to the principles of freedom of speech fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk tweeted. “What should be done?”
Late last month, Musk added that he was considering creating a new social media platform.
Musk, who is now Twitter’s largest shareholder, is not the only billionaire to hold a huge stake in a large media company.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is under investigation after he bought the Washington Post newspaper in 2013 for 250 million.
Former President Donald Trump protested against Bezos in a tweet storm after learning that reporters at the Post were looking at his past. Shares of Amazon fell as broad markets reached record highs.
Asked if mask companies could now face similar scrutiny, Baron said, “When you focus on something that is meaningless and will never affect anything, it moves away from seeing the big picture.”
He adds: “We don’t care about these things. It’s not relevant to me. People can take anything. A short seller or a long person or a hedge fund is going to pick something that you can do business with. It’s not relevant. I don’t care. “
