Musk Buying Twitter.... For Real This Time

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Dox47
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04 Oct 2022, 12:53 pm

I hope he's serious, Twitter is such a mess and yet so influential, it would be great to have him in charge of it.

Musk reverses again, now ready to buy Twitter at original price -sources

Quote:
Oct 4 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk is proposing to go ahead with his original offer of $44 billion to take Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) private, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, signaling an end to a bitter legal battle that was about to go to trial.

The agreement puts the world's richest person in charge of one of the most influential media platforms and ends months of turbulent litigation that damaged Twitter's brand and fed Musk's reputation for erratic behavior.

Musk, the chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), will take over a company he originally committed to buying in April, but soon soured on.

Twitter shares jumped 12.7% to $47.93 before trading was halted for the second time, while Tesla shares rose by about 1%.

Bloomberg reported the move earlier, saying Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter. It cited people who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Twitter and Musk's lawyers were not immediately available for requests for comment from Reuters.

The news comes ahead of a highly anticipated face-off between Musk and Twitter in Delaware's Court of Chancery on Oct. 17, in which the social media company was set to seek an order directing Musk to close the deal at $54.20 per share.

Musk agreed in April to buy Twitter for $44 billion or $54.20 per share, but within weeks said the number of bot accounts was much higher than Twitter's estimate of less than 5% of users. Bots are automated accounts, and their use can lead to overestimations of how many humans are on the service, which is important for advertising rates and the overall value of the service.

Musk, one of Twitter's most prominent users, claimed in July he could walk away from the deal because Twitter misled him about the number of real users and the security of user data.

"This is a clear sign that Musk recognized heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning vs. Twitter board was highly unlikely and this $44 billion deal was going to be completed one way or another," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note after the news.

Twitter employees, caught by surprise in the middle of meetings on Tuesday, expressed disbelief in tweets.

"I am sitting on 2023 company wide strategy readouts and I guess we are going to collectively ignore what's going on," wrote Rumman Chowdhury, Twitter's director of machine learning ethics, transparency and accountability.

Nick Caldwell, Twitter's general manager, joked that this time the upheaval was not taking place on a "day of rest," unlike in April, when Musk's decision to back away from accepting a board seat coincided with a companywide day off.

The settlement will revive fears among Twitter's users about Musk's plans for the platform, which has removed prominent politically conservative voices. Supporters of Donald Trump hope that Musk will reactivate the account of the former U.S. president, who was banned after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

The settlement gives Musk, already one of the world's most prominent and outspoken entrepreneurs, a megaphone for his views. He has used Twitter to stir controversy, including on Monday when he floated a peace plan for the Ukraine-Russia war that drew swift condemnation from Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. read more

Text messages that came to light during the litigation showed that Musk planned to battle spam by verifying accounts, wanted to shift Twitter away from advertising toward subscriptions and to adopt services such as money transfers.


Do it!


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Matrix Glitch
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04 Oct 2022, 1:20 pm

Do it, and let the un-banning begin.



funeralxempire
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04 Oct 2022, 1:37 pm

I'm sure the notoriously thin-skinned Musk will respect free speech. :lol:


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Mona Pereth
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05 Oct 2022, 12:09 am

Dox47 wrote:
I hope he's serious, Twitter is such a mess and yet so influential, it would be great to have him in charge of it.

What makes you think he'd be good at running a social media platform?

IMO he should stick to what he's good at.


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05 Oct 2022, 1:20 am

Isn't he one of those who's good at everything? If he acquires Twitter, it will probably be worth twice as much a year later. He'll probably incorporate some revolutionary AI feature that will somehow improve it significantly.



Dox47
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05 Oct 2022, 4:36 am

Mona Pereth wrote:
What makes you think he'd be good at running a social media platform?

IMO he should stick to what he's good at.


He doesn't have to be good, he just has to suck less than the current management, which is a fairly low bar.


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05 Oct 2022, 7:59 am

For a guy that seems very forward-thinking in general, or at least in his other business ventures, buying a 16 year old social media company seems like a weirdly regressive move. But he's smarter than me so he probably knows what he's doing.

Do you imagine he has significant plans to alter the service itself?

Or is this about buying soft influence to try and shape society to however he feels it should be?

Is this his Citizen Kane "I imagine it would be fun to run a newspaper," moment?


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Mona Pereth
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12 Oct 2022, 7:21 pm

DuckHairback wrote:
Do you imagine he has significant plans to alter the service itself?

Or is this about buying soft influence to try and shape society to however he feels it should be?

Probably both, I would guess.

According to the following articles, Musk has dreams of turning Twitter into a "super-app":

- Elon Musk And The Super Alluring Dream For A ‘Super App’ by Abram Brown, Forbes, Jun 21, 2022
- Elon Musk can’t fix Twitter because no one can by Peter Kafka, Vox, Oct 5, 2022


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13 Oct 2022, 1:56 am

Didn't he just give Kanye West a warm welcome on Twitter before cancelling him some 15 minutes later?



And So It Goes
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13 Oct 2022, 3:26 am

I imagine he might attempt to promise too much too soon, and cause initial disappointment.

If handled correctly, Twitter could easily compete with new tech social media and leave the likes of Facebook/Meta for dust.


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CockneyRebel
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13 Oct 2022, 1:42 pm

I'd love to see how Musk will run Twitter.


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27 Oct 2022, 10:40 pm

Elon Musk now in charge of Twitter, CEO and CFO have left, sources say

Quote:
CEO Elon Musk is now in charge of Twitter

, CNBC has learned.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal have left the company’s San Francisco headquarters and will not be returning, sources said. Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal policy, trust, and safety was also fired, the Washington Post reported.

Musk had until Friday to complete his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter or face a court battle with the company.

On Thursday, Musk wrote a message intended to reassure advertisers that social messaging services wouldn’t devolve into “a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk said in the message. “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far-right wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

Musk arrived at the Twitter headquarters earlier this week carrying a sink, and documented the event on Twitter, saying “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”

Musk also updated his Twitter description to “Chief Twit.”


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28 Oct 2022, 1:02 am

For me it's whether he wants to do something constructive, intelligent, and positive with Twitter or about the avaricious desire to possess yet another thing. I suspect the latter, but hope I'm wrong. I would not be happy if it became subscription based, and even more geared towards the the affluent middle class.



cyberdad
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28 Oct 2022, 1:48 am

[quote="ASPartOfMe"]Elon Musk now in charge of Twitter, CEO and CFO have left, sources say
[quote]

It seems worse than that
https://www.trtworld.com/americas/elon- ... ives-62031

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal were escorted (frog marched) out from Twitter headquarters, local media said. Musk had accused them of misleading him and Twitter investors over the number of fake accounts on the social media platform.

He has said he plans to cut jobs, leaving Twitter's approximately 7,500 employees fretting about their future. He also said on Thursday he did not buy Twitter to make more money but "to try to help humanity, whom I love."



Tim_Tex
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28 Oct 2022, 2:21 am

What is his ultimate goal with Twitter?


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Dox47
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28 Oct 2022, 3:32 am

Tim_Tex wrote:
What is his ultimate goal with Twitter?


To quite literally own the libs, obviously. I'll be curious to see if the "it's a private company, they can set their own rules!" argument continues to come from progressive lips for long after this.


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