Elon Musk Says He'll Buy Coca-Cola Next 'To Put The Cocaine Back In'

Elon Musk, the world's richest person, bought Twitter for a whopping $44 billion on Monday.


After shaking up one of the world's most prominent social media platforms and snagging Twitter for $44 billion in a bizarre hostile takeover on Monday, billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk has announced a new target: Coca-Cola.


In yet another eccentric tweet, newfound Twitter owner Musk today said that he planned to buy Coca-Cola next "to put the cocaine back in".


Soon after, Musk posted a screenshot of a previous tweet where he said "Now I'm going to buy McDonald's and fix all the ice cream machines," and jokingly responded to himself with "Listen, I can't do miracles ok".


Known for his outlandish statements, Musk's reputation on Twitter precedes him -- and did so far before he bought the company. Musk has, in the past, polled Twitter users, asking if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock in order to pay for unrealized capital gains, following which he actually sold off nearly $7 billion in Tesla shares when over 57% of poll participants voted in favour of his suggestion.

 

In the weeks leading up to his Twitter takeover, when Musk was only set to join the board and nothing else, the Tesla founder tweeted a series of ideas that he believed could improve the platform, with some appearing serious -- like the possibility of introducing an edit button -- while others seemed wholly bizarre, such as turning Twitter's San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter.

 

 His most recent Coca-Cola tweet -- presumably in jest, though not entirely discernible given his history of manifesting his whimsical social media statements -- is a nod to the veteran beverage company's colourful history with cocaine. Coca Cola's eponymous trademark soft drink is named for its two primary ingredients: coca leaves and kola nuts. While kola nuts are a source of caffeine, coca leaves are the base from which the psychoactive drug cocaine is extracted.


Cocaine-laden coca leaves used to be an integral ingredient in the carbonated soft drink's formula, back in the nineteenth century when the substance was still considered medicinal. However, as the drug became stigmatized and Prohibition hit the US, cocaine was removed from Coca-Cola's secret formula and instead replaced with decocainised coca leaves.


A day after Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk joked about buying Coca-Cola, he shared another related tweet triggering a frenzy among the netizens.


Elon Musk took to Twitter on Friday to share, “Real magic is only a sip away." (Actual slogan of Coca-Cola!!)" this came following his earlier tweet that he would buy the firm and put cocaine in it. Elon Musk's first tweet “@CocaCola Oh hi lol," tweet garnered nearly three lakh likes, was retweeted 24,000 times and had 17,000 replies on it.

 

His second tweet which read, "Real magic is only a sip away. (Actual slogan of Coca-Cola!!)" posted in a thread to the previous tweet has evoked one thousand quote retweets and ten thousand retweets. “Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in," Musk had tweeted, referring to the drink’s original recipe when it was launched in 1886 as a tonic for various ailments.


 

This comes following Elon Musk clinching a deal to buy social media microblogging platform Twitter for $44 billion in cash. The social media company on Thursday reported net income of $513 million, or 61 cents a share, but that includes a big one-time gain from the sale of its MoPub business, clouding comparisons with the year-ago period.

 

Buying the soft drinks company would be a major deal with its market capitalization of $284 billion. Musk’s own fortune currently stands at $253 billion.