Elon Musk $41B offer for Twitter

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One step closer, it seems -

Twitter Board Approves Elon Musk's $44 Billion Deal
https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/twitter...

The shareholders still need to approve.

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Elon's still smiling (literally 1h ago) -



https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/15463445294601...

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Google [bot] said:

You’re a busy man, Byker.

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dukeboy749r said:

pquinn said:

The Ferret said:

If this isn't already the worst investment decision of the century, give it 12 months and I'm absolutely certain it will be.

You mean buying something that's already a money pit, at a premium, in a market where everything was already collapsing in price might not be a brilliant plan?

Then again valuations on his businesses often end up well above where any rational analysis puts them, so Twitter could well end up pumped and everyone bailing with fistfuls of gains.

Or he might have just burned $44 billion.

The banks are already annoyed enough at the loss they're looking at here so will be fun next time he goes looking for funding.


Either way it should be entertaining as lots of people are going to be noisily pissed off by this circus, for negligible real impact.

Edited by pquinn on Friday 28th October 10:52

Take out the 'might' and this is more likely, it feels.

Someone posted that Musk may know something the rest of us don't.

He's definitely not omnipotent. He's a right tt at times, but definitely not omnipotent.

Ego versus rational thinking, at play. This time he was forced to go through with it, however.

Just for posterity. We can revisit in twelve months.

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Gecko1978 said:

Can't you just block things you don't like? Unlike here where you see all posts on twitter can't you turn off replies block followers etc

It's better than that. On Twitter you start by choosing whose posts you see - you follow them. On top of that you can mute and block people.

But that's not enough for some. They want censorship. They want to control what everyone sees. For a long time they could do just that. Now maybe that is coming to an end, and they don't like it.

All the right people are salty. No guarantees but it looks hopeful.

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AmitG said:

+1

The issue with "free for all" is not about having to look at it; as others have pointed out, you can choose what you see on Twitter. The issue is that if Twitter gets known for hosting this stuff, the Twitter brand will become toxic, advertisers will run away and it will kill the product stone dead.

So I think that Musk's choices will be to either continue to curate it, albeit with greater breadth of views compared to before, or run it without advertising and make it a free for all - in which case I'm not sure how it will pay for itself. Donations? Cross-subsidise with TSLA profits?

It's really not that difficult to find out what he is planning. What with him buying the biggest megaphone on the planet and all -


https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/15860599533111...

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Driller said:

I’ve been following this thread for a while now and am bemused by regular comments that Musk is “stupid” or a “tt” and other such comments.

This is the richest man on the planet and therefore surely the single evolutionary winner (at least for the moment). Such comments are akin to a chihuahua yapping at a passing Doberman.

I don’t think being the richest man on the planet is that relevant here, but the number of PHers who clearly consider themselves superior intellectually to him is amusing.

Time will tell. My money is still on Elon here.

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SmoothCriminal said:

Twitter fact checking the white house tweets so they delete them hahahaha.

That’s an improvement. Funny too.

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Byker28i said:

and they've started with the mass layoffs now
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/...

So, doing what he said he would do then?

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bhstewie said:

The BBC have a live feed of the Twitter sackings unfolding.

WTF

Not laughing at those losing their jobs here, but the BBC having a meltdown over this is adding to my amusement.

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Durzel said:

How is it a meltdown? There's some projection going on there. It's a fairly significant event.

Do we get a live feed on the front page for other company sackings? No we don't.

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It seems some of the 7,500 were the "Human Rights" team, working on behalf of the UN (?)


https://twitter.com/ShannonRSingh/status/158859160...

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saaby93 said:

guess everyones seen the founder has come out in support
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63527893

That's not new news. @jack had been unhappy with how Twitter had gone for a while.




Of course, maybe he's just said all this to take Elon's money and start a new one...

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https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/15897841346917...



https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/7/23445476/elon-m...


No such thing as bad publicity? Or maybe "Are you not entertained?"

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In case it wasn't obvious -


https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/15903849198299...

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cc3 said:

Oh and he’s stopped their free food !! Welcome to the real world. Some idiot has posted now he’s trying to starve us. No just buy your own food like everyone else

And these people are going to be on six figure salaries. I seem to have misplaced the appropriate violin.

Seemingly far too many of them on very generous terms, and now it's got a bit more serious. I believe Zuckerberg is doing much the same, but for some reason without the wailing.

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A couple of folks re-hired, and admission that firing them was a mistake...




Well, it's certainly entertaining. Still no idea whether it will all work out for the best.

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Collectingbrass said:

That's like saying Ratner's offerings didn't change after his speech. They didn't, but the brand had a different cachet about it than it had before. As an active user of Twitter I am very aware that unless I know for certain the origin of the account I am even more skeptical now than I ever have been. If a place pops up (Mastodon?) that verifies "blue tick" users and deals with harmful posts at least as well as the way Twitter used to, I will probably spend more time there. Musk has killed the golden goose and I don't see how he recovers it.

There have been several attempts to compete with Twitter. None have gained any traction. The first mover advantage is huge.

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SteveStrange said:

To those who use twitter: have you noticed any tangible difference in the last week or so?

I think the shadow banning has been removed, or at least reduced. I don't have to go looking to see tweets from people in my lists.