Elon Musk took the username @X on Twitter without paying anything to the owner

The account has been owned by photographer Gene Hwang from San Francisco since 2007.
The photographer received an email saying that his account is in process of being taken over by the company. In return, he was promised "merch" or "a meeting with the leadership of Twitter", but not money. However, the photographer refused such an offer.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/26/twitter-now-x-took-over-the-x-handle-without-warning-or-compensating-its-owner/