Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private • Hacker News Board

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#521

Post by gunapologist99 » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:48 PM UTC

So Twitter was at $70 per share a year ago. So what? Jack Dorsey was CEO a year ago, too. The share price was $33 less than a month ago.

But, despite an absolutely incredible roller-coaster news cycle, things have been definitely trending down at Twitter ($33/share last month), which was reflected in its share price. The current executive team (and Dorsey) had wasted time focusing on things that didn't matter instead of things that did matter.

Boards have several fiduciary duties to the shareholders. As an all-cash offer, this generates for the shareholders a substantial return with NO RISK, and so the board has a serious legal obligation to carefully review this offer and make a decision.

If the board elects to reject this offer, then their reasons for doing so need to be very clearly elucidated, because, as Twitter is a public company, they would have to see something in their crystal ball that the rest of the market does not.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#522

Post by kolbe » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:48 PM UTC

weakfish wrote: post #481

The thing that is absolutely puzzling to me in these conversations is it seems that people who generally believe in the free market desire what amounts to regulation on social media platforms, inversely, to protect 'free speech' when in fact Twitter has the absolute right in the free market to moderate as they see fit when free speech only protects from governmental actions. And to those who would make the argument t…

I've at least studied a lot of what other legal scholars have to say on the topic.

I think even the most staunch free market advocates understand the danger of monopolies. I think the same strain of thought makes them understand the danger of oversized government.

And so many of these companies are very arguably monopolies and should be either broken up or turned into a utility. In many people's minds, there's been what looks like a quid pro quo to do favors for government officials in order to avoid sensible efforts to regulate these essential communication platforms to even 1% of the level of say financial institutions.

Twitter may be a microcosm, but Twitter, Facebook and Google's communication platforms are responsible for enough speech to flip elections, to endorse or suppress vital information, and topple regimes. It's not something to be taken lightly.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#523

Post by farmerstan » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:48 PM UTC

yabatopia wrote: post #383

Let's ignore personality and societal issues for a moment and look at the value proposition. The 'best and final offer' of $54.20 per share is just too low to be acceptable for major investors. Just over year ago, Twitter shares traded at about $70 per share. Musk's offer is about 25% lower than last years peak. There's no reason to assume Twitter shares can't reach the same levels ever again, nothing much has change…

Why would he sell shares? He would have to pay income tax on that. He will borrow against it obviously.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#524

Post by MichaelMoser123 » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:48 PM UTC

paganel wrote: post #50

I personally think this is excellent, in the great scheme of things, maybe this will open a real discussion about the real oligarchic nature of the US political and societal life at the top. I mean, with tech titan (and second wealthiest man on the planet) Bezos owning the WaPo, the moment the tech titan (and the wealthiest man on the planet) Musk will put his hands on Twitter hopefully will also be the moment of som…

Speaking about enlightenment, isn't it strange that Elon Musk is into politics now? I mean he wants to go to Mars, his project was "Flyin' mother nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun", and now he goes right in the opposite direction. Did he have any major setbacks with his Starship?

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#525

Post by YossarianFrPrez » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:49 PM UTC

43 Billion Dollars!? Of all the important issues in the world, Twitter is where this sort of money might go? Twitter! Oy vey have we lost sight of whats important. That's enough to give every research PhD student in the USA a sorely needed extra $15k every year for the next ~50 years. Sure glad we aren't living in an age where incentivizing technological breakthroughs on a societal level is an important thing to do.

I use twitter, I get something out of it, and I probably disagree with Musk politically on several issues. But if he were to take Twitter private, and change it, or whatever... Honestly, that's his prerogative; I'm certainly not in a position to stop him. Whether it's "good" or "bad" is not something that's really under my control. It's just a shame that this wealth isn't used for something more productive.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#526

Post by newbamboo » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:49 PM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #222

Imo, he's taking responsibility. If as an individual you can deploy the most money in the world, what do you do with it? Twitter became a negative-sum game of people competing to debase themselves in service of narrative in exchange for nothing but the approval of others who had already done the same. Unlocking that negative cycle can release a lot of captive value for everyone. The best way to do that is to connect…

This is obviously the right take. But people won’t hear it. Which further underscores why this is good for society, not just the platform.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#527

Post by MrStonedOne » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:49 PM UTC

snowwrestler wrote: post #94

As a Twitter shareholder I would vote against this. Musk says there is tremendous financial potential in Twitter but then offers $54 a share, which is not even 2x the IPO price. That’s not a “tremendous potential” premium. There is a lot of evidence that platforms which de-prioritize moderation have trouble attracting revenue and experience significant compliance costs. See: the sad story of Moot, who ran one of the…

No post body was provided.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#528

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC

BeKindAndLearn wrote: post #343

paganel wrote: post #50

I personally think this is excellent, in the great scheme of things, maybe this will open a real discussion about the real oligarchic nature of the US political and societal life at the top. I mean, with tech titan (and second wealthiest man on the planet) Bezos owning the WaPo, the moment the tech titan (and the wealthiest man on the planet) Musk will put his hands on Twitter hopefully will also be the moment of som…

Oligarchs controlling every form of my mass communication can only make things worse, though.

> Oligarchs controlling every form of my mass communication can only make things worse, though

How can it make things worse when it has literally always been the case as long as there has been “mass communication”?

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#529

Post by cseleborg » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC

marricks wrote: post #407

There’s an account called Elon Jet which uses publicly available information to track Elon's private jet and post take off and landings. Elon offered 5k to the owner to take it down[1]. He has blocked loads of people for mocking or disagreeing with him. Are those actions evil or wrong? Not really, but I also don’t think they’re the actions of an ardent believer in free speech which this thread is making him out to be…

That's not what free speech is about. Free speech protects your opinions from the state. Someone offering you money to take down public information about them is just a transaction between citizens. Nothing to see here.

Re: Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

#530

Post by Lutger » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC

mark_l_watson wrote: post #262

I have to admit: I hope this happens mostly for the entertainment value. Also, I think that this business of shutting down opinions of people we dislike or disagree with is really bad for society long term. I think Musk might stop that.

I'm of the opposite opinion. I think being even more lax than Zuckerberg on psy-ops, hate speech, denialism, racism and misinformation will be quite dangerous to society. Some of the necessary conditions of speech itself might collapse, in a way that the very idea of 'speech' will become nearly impossible.

It will be terrible, for the Western democracies anyway - it will likely help Putin and Xi tremendously though.