On Sunday night, Elon Musk was booed off a stage by thousands of people after making a surprise appearance at a Dave Chappelle show. By the morning, he was no longer the richest person alive. As per Forbes, a slight dip in Tesla shares was enough to see the new king of Twitter drop to the number two spot, as well as gift him with his second major humiliation in less than 24 hours.
On Monday morning, stock in Musk’s once-thriving electric car company fell by 4%, which wound up shaving about $5 billion off his wealth. Far as billionaires go, that’s chump change. But it’s enough that he was overtaken by the former second richest person on the planet: Bernard Arnault, of the French luxury conglomerate LVMH.
Arnault — who isn’t a household name, partly because he doesn’t demand he host SNL or buy a social media service for way too much money then make it worse — is worth $186 billion. Musk is now “only” worth $184 billion.
There’s a couple reasons for Musk’s demotion, an expert told Forbes. One is that he cut prices in China, which isn’t good for the stock. There was also a negative article about Tesla stock in the Wall Street Journal, as well as one about Twitter’s souring relationship with advertisers.
In the month-and-change since taking over Twitter, the once-popular service has become a hotspot for bigoted slurs and un-banned figures. Musk himself has poured gasoline on the raging fire, even going after an ex-employee with baseless accusations of pedophilia, who’s been forced to flee his home after a torrent of death threats came his way. Getting booed by fans of a comic who makes anti-trans jokes and losing a few billion sounds like Elon got off easy.
(Via Forbes)