Elon Musk jokes about buying Manchester United, but guess who’s serious?

On Tuesday night, Elon Musk tweeted that he was buying the U.K. football club Manchester United (NYSE:MANU) — before clarifying he was joking hours later. This sent $MANU briefly up 17% before losing its gains.

What’s the big deal? Musk’s shenanigans have caught him on the wrong side of the Securities Exchange Commission — which doesn’t take kindly to market manipulation.

• In 2018, Musk was fined $20M for tweeting about taking Tesla public.
• In April, Musk joked about buying Coca-Cola, worth $280B — a big stretch even for the wealthiest person on Earth.

Don’t forget, Twitter is also suing him for trying to back out of buying Twitter.

In defense of Musk, TastyTrade’s CEO Tom Sosnoff speculated that Musk didn’t know Manchester United was publicly traded. After all, did you?

Who’s not kidding around? Michael Knighton, the U.K. businessman who’s reportedly planning a bid to buy Manchester United and put fans out of their misery…

• With an estimated ~$4.6B value, the mighty Manchester United is a highly valuable team — winning the Premier League in 2013.
• This season, Manchester United is in last place in the Premier League, and problems are piling up as fans are pressuring the team’s owner to sell $MANU over mismanagement and underperformance.

$MANU stock performance has been abysmal since going public in 2012. There are many reasons to own a sports team — bragging rights or love of the sport — but generating returns isn’t one of them.