Elon Musk, the American billionaire CEO of Tesla, said he was joking when he announced on Twitter his intention to buy English Premier League club Manchester United.
“Also, I’m buying Manchester United, welcome,” Musk wrote in a tweet posted to his official Twitter account. Asked by a user how serious he was about buying the club, Musk replied: “No, that’s an old Twitter joke. I’m not going to buy any sports team.” Musk has a history of unrelated tweets.
Musk made an offer to Twitter in late April and then signed a deal that paid the network $54.20 per share. It canceled it unilaterally in early July, saying the San Francisco-based company lied about the percentage of auto and random accounts on its platform. Considered to be one of the most outstanding clubs in the world, Manchester United have won the English Premier League title 20 times and also won the European Cup (European Champions League) 3 times. United got off to a disastrous start to the new season, losing 2-1 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion before suffering a heavy 4-0 defeat at Brentford. The market value of the English club is £2.08 billion.
And recent years have seen protests from United supporters against the Glazer family, who bought the club in 2005 for £790m ($955.51m) due to its fall in the league. Protests against the family gained momentum last year after United’s decision to enter the European Super League project fell through days after it was announced. Some fans asked Musk to buy United instead of Twitter. Musk is trying to back out of his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which has led the company to sue him.
