[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who decided to acquire social networking service (SNS) Twitter but later declared the cancellation and is preparing for legal litigation, has now said he would buy the English Premier League football team Manchester United, then clarified it was a joke.
On the 16th (local time), Musk posted on his Twitter, "Clearly, I support the left half of the Republican Party and the right half of the Democratic Party," a political-related comment, then suddenly wrote, "I am buying Manchester United," followed by "ur welcome."
Musk's tweet attracted the attention of netizens worldwide. However, when a Twitter user asked in the comments, "Are you serious?" Musk replied four hours later, "No, this is an old joke on Twitter," adding, "I will not buy any sports team."
Foreign media reported this news and introduced past cases where Musk posted seemingly random tweets. Bloomberg News pointed out, "Musk claimed he would buy Man U in a thread joking about political leanings," and added, "Musk has a history of using Twitter to troll or joke with the media that follow him."
Representative examples include Musk mentioning delisting Tesla on his Twitter in 2018 and then reversing it, or last December asking his followers for opinions while saying he was thinking of quitting his job to become an influencer.
Manchester United, a globally popular club, has a market capitalization of about $2.08 billion (approximately 2.7239 trillion KRW) based on the closing price that day. The club, operated by the Glazer family in the United States, did not immediately respond to Musk's remarks.
Musk's tweet came amid ongoing legal battles over the Twitter acquisition issue. Musk agreed to acquire Twitter for $44 billion (about 57.3 trillion KRW) at the end of April but unilaterally canceled the contract last month, claiming Twitter did not provide data related to fake accounts, and is currently in litigation.
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