Elon Musk hired former "The Onion" staffers and is forming a media company called "Thud," with comedy apparently the business magnate's latest venture, according to reports.
The tech billionaire has enlisted the help of former "The Onion" Editor-In-Chief Cole Bolton and Executive Editor Ben Berkley, who both left the satirical news publication last year, and has since added three of the site's writers and an editor to the team, The Daily Beast reported.
In a cryptic joint statement to the Daily Beast, Bolton and Berkley said they "learned nothing from prevailing trends in media and are launching a brand-new comedy project."
Meanwhile, Musk fueled speculation on Wednesday when he posted a tweet that simply read "Thud!"
After much prompting, he added, "That's the name of my new intergalactic media empire, exclamation point optional."
A rep for Musk later confirmed that "Thud" was the name of Musk's new media company, Variety noted.
Sources told the Daily Beast that the project may be another written satirical news publication or website and that Musk would not have editorial oversight or be involved in the day-to-day operations.
In a statement, Musk added that it was "pretty obvious that comedy is the next frontier after electric vehicles, space exploration, and brain-computer interfaces," adding that he did not know how "anyone's not seeing this."
Variety noted that the domain for "thud.com" has been registered and last updated in December through GoDaddy, although the website is not live, and the registrant information is anonymous.
Musk has long been a fan of "The Onion" and even considered buying the company in 2014, sources told The Daily Beast.
In an interview with Rolling Stone last November he commented that, "in order to understand the essential truth of things, I think you can find it in 'The Onion' and occasionally on Reddit."