#trending: Elon Musk's 'joke' tweet on buying Manchester United sends fans into frenzy
SINGAPORE — Elon Musk's joking tweet about "buying Manchester United" (MUFC) on Wednesday morning (Aug 17) has taken social media by storm, drawing mixed responses from fans of the football club across the world.
- Elon Musk tweeted that he was buying football club Manchester United on Wednesday morning (Aug 17)
- But he admitted in another tweet four hours later that it was a "long-running joke on Twitter" and that he is "not buying any sports teams"
- The billionaire's two tweets took social media by storm and drew mixed responses from Man U fans across the world
- Many netizens referenced his tweet about buying the football club to his failed Twitter bid
- While some fans remain hopeful despite Musk admitting it was a "joke", other observant netizens noticed unusual activity around the football club's stocks
SINGAPORE — In the midst of his legal battle with Twitter, Elon Musk's tweet about "buying Manchester United" (MUFC) on Wednesday morning (Aug 17) has taken social media by storm, drawing mixed responses from fans across the world.
Though the billionaire later revealed that he had been joking, the original tweet had already gotten the internet's attention. In less than 10 hours, it has attracted more than 100,600 retweets, 89,600 comments, and 626,700 likes.
The tweet comes only four months after Musk famously made a US$44 billion (S$60.7 billion) deal to buy Twitter in April — and subsequently pulled out of it last month due to disputes over "bot account" data. The two parties are currently embroiled in a legal battle.
As for MUFC, as football fans would know, they have recently fallen on some hard times as well. The club's eight managerial changes in the past decade following Sir Alex Ferguson's 27-year-run are only the tip of the iceberg.
The club is currently at the bottom of the English Premier League after back-to-back defeats to Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club and Brentford Football Club — both teams they have historically triumphed against — in a nightmare start to the season.
And with the team set to play long-standing rival Liverpool Football Club next Tuesday, things are not looking up for them.
In response to Musk's MUFC tweet, many netizens referenced his failed Twitter bid: "Yep. Right after the Twitter deal goes through."
The excitement Musk ignited amongst MUFC fans with his original tweet soon turned to outrage for some when he later clarified that it was a joke, as some had genuinely taken the potential change of ownership as a sign of hope for the football club's future.
Other more observant netizens have noticed some unusual activity around $MANU, or MUFC stocks. According to Twitter user "unusual_whales", two days prior to Elon's joke announcement, someone had bought a hundred times of the average monthly volume of $MANU stock in just one day.
This is not the first time Musk has been accused of market manipulation.
The Tesla CEO had previously been charged with fraud by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for tweeting that he had secured private funding for the electric car company when in fact he had not.
The SEC claimed that his tweet had misled investors and shareholders of the listed company.
Considering the fact that Musk just sold about US$6.9 billion worth of Tesla shares last week, some are still holding out the hope that it is not a joke. After all, many had thought the same of his Twitter bid.