Vratislav Holub Elon Musk bought Twitter and practically the whole world is dealing with nothing else. This purchase cost him an interesting 44 billion US dollars, which translates to 1 trillion crowns. But when we think about it and generalize this purchase, it is actually not such a surprising event. In the case of tech moguls, corporate purchases are quite common. However, the current events surrounding Musk and Twitter are gaining significantly more attention due to the fact that it is one of the most used social networks today. So let's take a look at the other giants and shed some light on their previous purchases.
Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post
In 2013, Jeff Bezos, until recently the richest person on the planet, made a very interesting purchase, which was recently surpassed by Elon Musk. But at that time he was not even proud of such a title, he appeared in the rankings in 19th place. Bezos bought The Washington Post Company, which is behind one of the most popular American newspapers, The Washington Post, whose articles are often adopted by foreign media. It is one of the most prestigious print media in the world with a long tradition.
At the time, the purchase cost the head of Amazon $250 million, which is just a drop in the bucket compared to Musk's purchase of Twitter.
Bill Gates and arable land
Bill Gates, the original founder of Microsoft and its former executive director (CEO), also attracted considerable attention. Practically out of thin air, he began buying up so-called arable land across the United States, making him the man who owns the most land in the country. In total, it owns almost 1000 square kilometers, which is comparable to the area of the whole of Hong Kong (with an area of 1106 km2). He accumulated all the territory over the past decade. Although there was a lot of speculation surrounding the use of this area, until recently it was not at all clear what Gates actually intended with it. And it really isn't even now. The first statement from the former head of Microsoft came only in March 2021, when he answered questions on the Reddit social network. According to him, these purchases are not connected to solving climate problems, but to protect agriculture. It's no wonder, then, that huge attention was focused on Gates.
Larry Ellison and his own Hawaiian island
What to do if you don't know what to do with money? In 2012, Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corporation and its executive director, solved it in his own way. He bought Lanai, the sixth largest Hawaiian island out of the eight main ones, which cost him 300 million dollars. On the other hand, as he himself claims, he doesn't have it just for personal pleasure. On the contrary - his plans are certainly not the smallest. In the past, he mentioned to The New York Times that his intention is to create the first economically self-sufficient "green" community. For this reason, one of the main goals is to move away from fossil fuels and switch to renewable sources, which should 100% power the entire island.
Mark Zuckerberg and his competition
Mark Zuckerberg showed us how best to react to the competition back in 2012, when (under his company Facebook) he bought out Instagram. In addition, this acquisition has received a lot of attention for several interesting reasons. The purchase cost an incredible billion dollars, which was a huge amount of money for 2012. Moreover, Instagram had only 13 employees at the time. In 2020, moreover, it became clear that the intent of the purchase was clear. During one of the court hearings, emails were shown, according to which Zuckerberg perceived Instagram as a competitor.
Just two years later, Facebook bought the currently most used messenger, WhatsApp, for a record $19 billion.
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