Shares of the English soccer club Manchester United PLC (NYSE: MANU) briefly jumped more than 7.5% on Wednesday after Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) Chief Executive Elon Musk jokingly tweeted that he would buy the club.“Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome,” the billionaire wrote on Twitter.
Hours later, Musk tweeted, “No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams,” responding to a Twitter user asking if he was serious about buying the club.
Based on the club’s Monday’s closing price, Musk had to shell out around $2 billion to buy Manchester United.
Musk’s original tweet incited a widespread reaction, and the fans of the English soccer club reacted, surprised yet hopeful, as many criticized the current owners of ManU, the American Glazer family.
Even before Musk clarified that his tweet about buying Manchester United was a joke, some followers remained skeptical as the billionaire has a history of making similar jokes online.
In April of this year, he tweeted that he would purchase Coca-Cola “to put the cocaine back in,” but later replied, “And I’m not buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in, despite the extreme popularity of such a move.”
Picture Credit: Reuters
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