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One of Twitter’s largest corporate shareholders, Vanguard Inc., has upped its stake in the Big Tech giant to leap past Elon Musk has the largest single shareholder.
“Elon Musk is no longer the largest shareholder in Twitter, it emerged on Thursday, after asset manager Vanguard Group increased its stake to overtake him,” the Daily Mail reported. “Vanguard now owns 10.3 percent of Twitter, while Musk owns 9.1 percent of the company, making him the largest individual shareholder.”
Musk’s share is still four times that of the only other major individual shareholder in the company: Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
According to Investopedia, Vanguard has more than $7.50 trillion in assets under management (AUM), second only to BlackRock, Inc ($9.01 trillion AUM), which also owns a large stake (6.5%) in Twitter.
Vanguard is the “largest issuer of mutual funds in the world and the second-largest issuer of exchange-traded funds (ETFs),” Investopedia also notes.
The Vanguard move is an obvious attempt to frustrate Musk’s attempt to take over Twitter and restore a semblance of free speech on the platform.
Twitter’s board held an emergency meeting on Thursday afternoon to evaluate Musk’s $43 billion offer, valued at $54.20/share. CEO Parag Agrawal spoke to shareholders at the meeting about the offer.
Major Twitter shareholder Saudi Sheikh Al Waleed rejected Elon Musk’s bid,which is significantly higher than the Goldman Sachs appraised target price of $30/share.But Musk said at a TED conference on Thursday that there is a ‘Plan B.’ “Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square,” Musk said. “So it’s really important that people have both the reality and the perception that they’re able to speak freely… so there’s no sort of behind-the-scenes manipulation, either algorithmically or manually.”“My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the […]
Will America-First News Outlets Make it to 2023?
Things are looking grim for conservative and populist news sites.
There’s something happening behind the scenes at several popular conservative news outlets. 2021 was bad, but 2022 is proving to be disastrous for news sites that aren’t “playing ball” with the corporate media narrative. It’s being said that advertisers are cracking down, forcing some of the biggest ad networks like Google and Yahoo to pull their inventory from conservative outlets. This has had two major effects. First, it has cooled most conservative outlets from discussing “taboo” topics like Pandemic Panic Theater, voter fraud, or The Great Reset. Second, it has isolated those ad networks that aren’t playing ball.
Certain topics are anathema for most ad networks. Speaking out against vaccines or vaccine mandates is a certain path to being demonetized. Highlighting voter fraud in the 2020 and future elections is another instant advertising death penalty. Throw in truthful stories about climate change hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and the border crisis and it’s easy to understand how difficult it is for America-First news outlets to spread the facts, share conservative opinions, and still pay the bills.
Without naming names, I have been told of several news outlets who have been forced to either consolidate with larger organizations or who have backed down on covering certain topics out of fear of being “canceled” by the ad networks. I get it. This is a business for many of us and it’s not very profitable. Those of us who do this for a living are often barely squeaking by, so loss of additional revenue can often mean being forced to make cuts. That means not being able to cover the topics properly. Its a Catch-22: Tell the truth and lose the money necessary to keep telling the truth, or avoid the truth and make enough money to survive. Those who have chosen survival simply aren’t able to spread the truth properly.
We will never avoid the truth. The Lord will provide if it is His will. Our job is simply to share the facts, spread the Gospel, and educate as many Americans as possible while exposing the forces of evil.
To those who have the means, we ask that you please donate. We have options available now, but there is no telling when those options will cancel us. We have our GivingFuel page. There have been many who have been canceled by PayPal, but for now it’s still an option. Your generosity is what keeps these sites running and allows us to get the truth to the masses. We’ve had great success in growing but we know we can do more with your assistance.
Thank you, and God Bless!
JD Rucker