Twitter’s trust and safety head was asked to transfer ownership of the @e handle to Elon Musk in April 2022, according to a new book by Zoe Schiffer.
“Extremely Hardcore” documents Musk’s chaotic acquisition of Twitter and notes the request Yoel Roth received from Twitter’s then-chief marketing officer, Leslie Berland, shortly after Musk became the company’s biggest shareholder.
On April 4, Musk publicly disclosed he owned a 9.1% stake in the company, sending its stock soaring. A week later, he offered to buy Twitter.
Schiffer, managing editor of the tech newsletter Platformer, previously said in an X post that Musk had acquired the @e handle .
Single-letter usernames, usually snared by Twitter’s early adopters, are traded at high values on black market forums. According to Schiffer’s book, handles like @e could change hands for about $50,000.
Although Twitter didn’t make a habit of transferring account handles without a legitimate business reason, the owner of the @e account had been suspended, so Roth decided to give it to Musk, according to the book.
Musk does not appear to have engaged with the account other than changing the name to “John Utah.”
Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
As well as his main @elonmusk account, he reportedly has another in the name of his son X Æ A-12.