Twitter ‘no longer exists’: Musk starts new company

Twitter has ceased to be an independent company after merging with a newly formed shell firm called X Corp, driving speculation about what Elon Musk intends for the social media platform.

Twitter “no longer exists” after being merged with X Corp, said an April 4 document submitted in a California court for a lawsuit filed against the company and its former chief executive officer, Jack Dorsey, last year by conservative activist Laura Loomer.

It’s unclear what the change means for Twitter, which has experienced a sweeping overhaul since Musk bought the company for $US44 billion ($66 billion) last year. The billionaire owner has in the past suggested that buying Twitter would be an “accelerant” for creating X — which he dubbed an “everything app”. Musk tweeted about the move on Tuesday with the single character “X”.

The world’s second-richest man has professed his desire to make X similar to China’s WeChat, a super-app owned by Tencent Holdings used for everything from payments and booking event tickets to messaging. But he’s been vague about how it will fit in with his sprawling business empire, ranging from the electric car giant Tesla to Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

Musk also owns the domain “X.com” — the name of the online payments company he started and eventually merged with PayPal.

Musk first set up a trio of holding companies in Delaware with a variation of the name “X Holdings” in April last year as part of his takeover bid for Twitter. But X Corp was set up on March 9 in Nevada, according to records filed in the state. Its merger with Twitter was submitted on March 15. Musk is president of the firm and its parent, X Holdings Corp, which was also set up last month and has an authorised capital of $US2 million, filings show.

“Musk could create a parent structure, similar to Alphabet, where he has all his companies,” said Mandeep Singh, analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. “I don’t see how he can layer e-commerce or payments in Twitter right when larger peers such as Alphabet and Meta have struggled to become an everything app on the consumer side.”