Vanguard group dislodges Elon Musk as Twitter's largest shareholder

Elon Musk, who revealed a 9.2% stake in Twitter earlier in April, has been dislodged as the largest shareholder of the micro-blogging platform after US-based money manager The Vanguard Group disclosed it now owns 10.3% of the firm.

A filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows Vanguard raised its ownership in the firm over the course of the first quarter. Vanguard’s holdings in Twitter are now worth $3.78 billion, based on the stock’s closing price on Wednesday, a report in The Wall Street Journal said.

The development comes right on the heels of a takeover offer from Musk for Twitter. On Thursday, Musk—the world's richest person—made a $43 billion hostile bid to buy out the social media platform. Musk claims taking the firm private will allow him to protect free speech and bring transparency to the decisions made at the platform which has become the "global town square". 

In order to thwart Musk's bid, Twitter on Friday announced it would adopt a so-called poison pill—a defensive tactic against hostile takeovers. Known formally as a shareholder rights plan, the poison pill would dilute anyone amassing a stake in the firm of more than 15% by selling more stock to other shareholders at a discount. The poison pill will be in place for about a year.

Twitter has also been fielding takeover interest from other parties, including technology-focused private equity firm Thoma Bravo, Bloomberg reported.

Musk still remains the largest individual shareholder and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is the second largest.