Shares fly in Manchester United after Musk jokes he’ll buy the team
Shares in Manchester United surged 17 per cent in pre-marketing trade this morning after Elon Musk joked that he would buy the famous football club.
The eccentric entrepreneur let 4.5 hours pass before he added that it was “a long-running joke,” scuppering hopes for investors.
According to Forbes, Manchester United is worth $4.6bn and is one of the biggest football clubs in the world.
Commenting on the prank, retail & commercial partner at the law firm Gowling WLG Sarah Riding said: “Without rumour and speculation, the stock market wouldn’t thrive or even exist in the first place, so it is interesting to see the tables turn in this way.
I wonder if the club might not utilise this within an promotional campaigns in order to demonstrate their own good humour, and perhaps benefit in the process.”
The Tesla founder is notorious for his market moving comments on Twitter, as well as controversial ones.
Back in 2018, he joked he would take Tesla private at $420 a share. Musk and Tesla were each fined $20m following this week, The Washington Post reported.
He is also embroiled in a legal row over his attempted $44bn takeover of Twitter, which he backed out of last month.
Manchester United was not immediately available to comment.