Elon Musk Doesn't Plan to Buy Pornhub Instead of Twitter — Here's Why
While Elon Musk has been flip-flopping on buying Twitter, his fans are guessing his next acquisition. They have been speculating whether he will buy Pornhub next.
May 31 2022, Published 9:15 a.m. ET
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been dominating news headlines for the last few months. Musk is usually in the news for his tweets, but he has also been making news over his offer to acquire Twitter. Even though Musk has been flip-flopping on buying Twitter, his fans are trying to guess his next acquisition. They have been speculating whether Musk will buy YouTube or Pornhub next.
The rumor of Musk buying YouTube isn't accurate. YouTube parent Alphabet doesn't have any intention of selling the business and Musk doesn't have any intention of buying it. Could Pornhub be Musk’s acquisition target and will he buy the company?
Who owns Pornhub?
Pornhub is owned by MindGeek, a privately-held company that's registered in Luxemburg. Most of the company's employees and physical presence are in Montreal, Canada. The company has maintained a low profile about itself as well as the founders and owners, none of whom are mentioned on the website.
MindGeek is owned by Bernard Bergemar, who's the largest stockholder. Feras Anton, the company’s CEO, is also a MindGeek stockholder. David Tassillo is also the company’s chief operating officer and also a minority stockholder.
Tassillo was named in the Pandora Papers, which had the details of secret offshore companies and bank accounts of several influential businesspersons, high-ranking government officials, and politicians.
What has Musk said about Pornhub?
In January 2020, Musk did a striptease-style dance in Shanghai to celebrate the deliveries of China-made Model 3 cars to customers. The company also announced the China-made Model Y program at the event. While people made fun of Musk’s dance moves, he later joked on Twitter that he was trying to grow his followers on Pornhub.
In 2019, when Musk tweeted about a “quiet electric leafblower," Pornhub replied by asking him whether he was interested in a collaboration on a “dual-purpose electric blower.” Of course, like many of Musk’s tweets, even the “leafblower” tweet only had entertainment value. Neither the leafblower nor the collaboration with Pornhub ever saw the light of the day.
Will Elon Musk buy Pornhub?
In all likelihood, Musk won't buy Pornhub. First, the company has been accused of several wrongdoings like revenge porn as well as child rape videos. As the world’s richest person and the CEO of companies like SpaceX and Tesla, Musk might not want to be associated with the porn streaming company.
Although the association, if it were to happen, would gel well with Musk’s rediscovery of himself as a “free speech absolutist,” it wouldn't impress a lot of people, especially conservatives who are against porn. Lately, Musk has been warming up to conservatives and also proposed restoring former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account, which was suspended post the Capitol Hill violence in 2021.
While Musk admitted to voting Democrats in the past, he said that he would vote a Republican in 2024. That was quite an about-turn from Musk who had once proclaimed himself a “socialist.”
A fake YouTube video claims Musk is buying Pornhub.
A fake YouTube video shows Musk saying that he will buy Pornhub. The video has had over 6,600 views but it's easy to make out that the video is fake as the voice doesn't sync. Even the video looks old and Musk only recently made the offer to buy Twitter.
