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Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place

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Re: Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place

#11

Post by remarkEon »

wpietri wrote: post #3

Hah! This is funny in all sorts of ways. Supposed "activist" investors settling for a quick ransom. Twitter paying the ransom by taking money from possibly worse people. Twitter paying $2 bn in ransom for Jack , the guy who is at best a half-time CEO, and who has presided over a mix of stagnation and deck-chair rearrangement. And of course the online panic that this was going to be a Trump-allied guy's way of dominat…

>And of course the online panic that this was going to be a Trump-allied guy's way of dominating Twitter when it was just another cash grab.

In what way is Elliot "Trump-allied"? He seems like the kind of institutional conservative investor that would hate Trump's attempts at, essentially, implementing a Neo-merchantilist trade and financial policy.

Re: Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place

#12

Post by ISL »

dodobirdlord wrote: post #2

Using outside investment to buy back shares seems more than a little silly. Seems like acknowledging that the investor made a mistake, since you have no use for additional capital.

Using outside investment to buy back shares is a way to transfer ownership to the outside investors, so long as the investors hold their shares.

Re: Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place

#13

Post by paulgb »

remarkEon wrote: post #11
wpietri wrote: post #3

Hah! This is funny in all sorts of ways. Supposed "activist" investors settling for a quick ransom. Twitter paying the ransom by taking money from possibly worse people. Twitter paying $2 bn in ransom for Jack , the guy who is at best a half-time CEO, and who has presided over a mix of stagnation and deck-chair rearrangement. And of course the online panic that this was going to be a Trump-allied guy's way of dominat…

>And of course the online panic that this was going to be a Trump-allied guy's way of dominating Twitter when it was just another cash grab. In what way is Elliot "Trump-allied"? He seems like the kind of institutional conservative investor that would hate Trump's attempts at, essentially, implementing a Neo-merchantilist trade and financial policy.

The founder Paul Singer was anti-Trump, but had since become a big donor[1]. It seems more opportunistic than an ideological shift, but I'm just speculating.

When Elliot took the position there was some press that hinted that it was politically driven, but I couldn't find any reason to believe that over the obvious: that replacing an absentee CEO is an easy way to unlock value in a floundering company.

1. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/08/trump-megadonors-g...

Re: Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place

#14

Post by brogrammernot »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #6

Elliott gets a board seat as part of the deal. The people leading the charge to get rid of Jack Dorsey are more embedded on the inside now. This looks like a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) for Jack Dorsey. Maybe they're trying to steer him the desired direction. Or maybe they're just trying to gather enough evidence to really oust him in 12 months.

Sorta. This feels more like Jack/activist investor coming to common ground on the direction of the company and also a proper succession plan for Dorsey to walk away from Twitter.

He only owns 2% of the company, and at this point I’d imagine his only options were to strike this truce & have control over how he exits as opposed to be outed right now with a power vacuum causing Twitter to destabilize a bit.

I’d expect to see a succession plan where Jack is out within 12-18 months but getting to help pick the next CEO.

Re: Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place

#15

Post by awinter-py »

It's always been confusing to me what twitter is as a company -- it feels more like a utility, or like the public service part of 20th century journalism without the profit model

In many ways it's more important to society than FB & G (picking them as the 2 of the big 5 that are pure information plays), in that it hosts semi-public conversations and helps experts stay informed

Would be interesting for some small country to create public utility versions of twitter and linkedin and see what the effect is. Sucks for free speech but great for experimental economics and welfare programs.

Re: Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place

#16

Post by pysxul »

paulgb wrote: post #13
remarkEon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And of course the online panic that this was going to be a Trump-allied guy's way of dominating Twitter when it was just another cash grab. In what way is Elliot "Trump-allied"? He seems like the kind of institutional conservative investor that would hate Trump's attempts at, essentially, implementing a Neo-merchantilist trade and financial policy.

The founder Paul Singer was anti-Trump, but had since become a big donor[1]. It seems more opportunistic than an ideological shift, but I'm just speculating. When Elliot took the position there was some press that hinted that it was politically driven, but I couldn't find any reason to believe that over the obvious: that replacing an absentee CEO is an easy way to unlock value in a floundering company. 1. https://www…

Well before running for president Trump was a Democrat, let that sink in

Re: Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place

#17

Post by pjc50 »

awinter-py wrote: post #15

It's always been confusing to me what twitter is as a company -- it feels more like a utility, or like the public service part of 20th century journalism without the profit model In many ways it's more important to society than FB & G (picking them as the 2 of the big 5 that are pure information plays), in that it hosts semi-public conversations and helps experts stay informed Would be interesting for some small coun…

Network effects are pretty huge for these things. A country could e.g. spin up its own Mastodon instance, but good luck getting people to use it. The country-based LinkedIn might work, since that's inherently local, and lots of countries have some kind of state job advert service tied to their unemployment benefits. It would be a bit nasty to make "you have to be on BritLinkedIn to recieve unemployment benefit" a condition but I can absolutely see someone coming up with that idea.

At the other end of hyperlocal, I've always been surprised that Edinburgh has its own dominant property market website (ESPC).

Re: Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place

#18

Post by luckylion »

awinter-py wrote: post #15

It's always been confusing to me what twitter is as a company -- it feels more like a utility, or like the public service part of 20th century journalism without the profit model In many ways it's more important to society than FB & G (picking them as the 2 of the big 5 that are pure information plays), in that it hosts semi-public conversations and helps experts stay informed Would be interesting for some small coun…

> In many ways it's more important to society than FB & G (picking them as the 2 of the big 5 that are pure information plays), in that it hosts semi-public conversations and helps experts stay informed.

Out of all interactions on Twitter I've witnessed, conversations comes to mind the least to describe them. It's either people screaming at each other which barely makes it past a scripted dialogue of replies, or it's somebody saying ABC and all their fans saying "wow, so smart/brave/true". I don't see any value in those, and they make up the super majority on twitter.

The "helping experts stay informed" part is true though, there are some small communities where it's used to provide easy methods to contact others. That's a small benefit compared to the giant damage it does to actual dialogue.

Twitter's default mode is a school yard brawl where you have plenty of "followers" egging the fighters on. That's a utility if you want to destroy a society, but important to society?

Re: Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place

#19

Post by tibiahurried »

In the last year, I found myself using Reddit more and more. It seems easier to find more interesting and engaging content than Twitter. I now rarely check Twitter because I basically get all the latest news on the things I care about on Reddit.

I see Twitter as social like FB. But like FB the quality of the content is low and just random.

I think the one place Twitter shines is customer support. More and more companies use Twitter as a channel to engage with their customers. I used myself many times to engage support and I was positively surprised how well that worked out.

I think the only way forward for Twitter will be an acquisition. I think Salesforce showed some interest at one point, exactly to use it as a channel to connect companies with their customers.

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