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'Chief Twit' Musk delivers bathroom furniture to Twitter HQ ... but not Tesla results

Purported real-world Iron Man sinks to lame prank

Instead of delivering Tesla's expected quarterly revenue, CEO Elon Musk decided to take a bathroom sink to the headquarters of Twitter, the social media platform he bid for in April.

The hamfisted prank coincided with the eve of the deadline to complete the $44 billion takeover of the popular social media platform, which at one point saw its value collapse 40 percent on the offer price. Musk has since attempted to abandon the deal, which he failed to do last month.

"Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!" Mr Musk wrote on Twitter, somewhat inexplicably.

He also labelled himself "Chief Twit" on the social media platform as its shares were set to be suspended from trading on Friday.

Earlier this week, Musk's electric car company Tesla recorded $3.3 billion in profit and $21.45 billion in revenue, both undershooting market expectations of performance.

According to Reuters, Tesla produced 22,000 more cars than it delivered to customers in the third quarter, which could signal demand dipping below expectations.

Musk is reputed to be the richest man in the world, although some think it might be Russian supremo Vladimir Putin – who has phone calls with Musk, according to Russian media – an idea with which Musk himself seems to agree.

"A beautiful thing about Twitter is how it empowers citizen journalism – people are able to disseminate news without an establishment bias," he also posted on Twitter.

Now, for whatever reason, the idea of him owning Twitter seems to have spooked US authorities as reports emerged that officials were discussing whether Musk should be subject to a national security review.

Musk, whose father claims to have once owned a share in an emerald mine in Zambia, made his name as one of the founders of PayPal, the dotcom-era online payment service sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. He went on to co-found Tesla, famed for improving the electric vehicle, a concept that has been around for more than 100 years. He also sends hardware into space, which Russia began doing 65 years ago. ®

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