50% is required for total control, but partial control is still very powerful.
Owning 9% of a company's stock still gives a lot of votes. 10-20% is enough to enable an activist investor to really be a pain for a company. Even as little as 5% is enough that the SEC requires special forms to be filed because of the power that gives to an individual shareholder.
Elon presumably wants influence over Twitter, without the responsibility of running Twitter. He can get that with a lot less than 50% -- in fact he may have already achieved the level of influence he wants, and one sign is that Twitter feels the need to make public statements about it.
Owning 9% of a company's stock still gives a lot of votes. 10-20% is enough to enable an activist investor to really be a pain for a company. Even as little as 5% is enough that the SEC requires special forms to be filed because of the power that gives to an individual shareholder.
Elon presumably wants influence over Twitter, without the responsibility of running Twitter. He can get that with a lot less than 50% -- in fact he may have already achieved the level of influence he wants, and one sign is that Twitter feels the need to make public statements about it.