03 | Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter
It’s not that big of a deal. I bought a toilet brush the other day too
Literally the first “thing” I saw rolling out of bed was a notification for this tweet:
Turns out, Elon Musk’s made an offer to buy Twitter and take it private. Attached as a statement to the chairman of the Twitter board, Bret Taylor:
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.
However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.
As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”
In a later message (attached to the SEC filing) Musk said:
If the deal doesn’t work, given that I don’t have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
This is not a threat, it's simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made.
And those changes won't happen without taking the company private.”
This play had telegraphed for weeks. Rumors were when Musk declined to join Twitter’s board of directors it was to avoid a 14% ownership ceiling on Twitter stock.
Opinion
This is probably fine. According to the Pew Research Center, only 1/5 of Americans use Twitter. Those that do are young and “highly educated”. Twitter is the Media Classes’ town square. It’s paramount to writers, tech thinkers, and creators because it’s formatting allows for the rapid relaying of information. More so than any other social network. Musk is the personification of all those qualities. It’s what’s made him a power user of the platform for years and what makes him the most qualified to right the ship.
Some people are not happy about this. There’s a growing movement in this country against the upper class and the reaches of individual power. It can’t do anything, but it makes reading the news even more tedious than I thought possible. There’s nothing wrong with being rich—I say as a moderately unwealthy man. But there is an issue when you use your wealth and power to abuse the system to further enrich yourself.
At the risk of making me sound even more like a fanboy, I’ve seen little evidence of Musk being cut from the same cloth as Pelosi or Bezos. I am however, unprepared to defend that claim. And would love counter evidence to kill off the last remanent of respect I have for public figures.
What do you think of Musk attempting to buy Twitter. Does this affect you? Do you think the changes he will bring to Twitter will be good?
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