Elon Musk says he was kidding about buying Manchester United

On Wednesday, Elon Musk, the world's richest person,

 tweeted that he was joking when he announced about acquiring the English soccer team Manchester United.

“No, this is a long-running Twitter joke.” When asked if he was serious about buying the club, Musk responded, “I'm not buying any sports teams.”

Musk had tweeted almost eight hours earlier: "I'm purchasing Manchester United ur (sic) welcome," without providing any further details. Some Manchester United supporters, unhappy with their club's precipitous downturn, had previously urged Musk to consider buying the club on Twitter.

The tweet turnaround comes as Musk attempts to back out of a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter, barely four months after declaring on the platform that he would buy the social media company, which has sued him.

Musk has a history of being unusual and sending out irreverent tweets, making it tough to know whether he is kidding or not.

On April 27, two days after Twitter's board approved his unsolicited offer to acquire the firm, he tweeted, "Next I'm purchasing Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in."

Musk's tweets on possible acquisitions have already placed him in hot water with US regulators.

In 2018, he announced that funding for a $72 billion deal to take Tesla private, had been obtained, but he did not proceed with an offer. Musk and Tesla each paid $20 million in civil fines, and Musk stood down as Tesla's chairman, to settle SEC allegations that Musk deceived investors.

The SEC did not respond quickly to a request for comment on Musk's tweet indicating he was purchasing the club outside regular business hours.

Manchester United is one of the most recognizable names in international soccer, but the club is currently in trouble on the field, with supporters demanding that the club's current owners, the American Glazer family, to pull out.

The team's primary Twitter account has more than 32 million followers, and Musk's first tweet on the club received roughly 400k 'likes' on the platform within four hours.

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