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

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

#541

Post by danielmarkbruce »

YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #525

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.…

The money doesn't disappear, it's not being "spent". One person is buying, a bunch of people are selling.

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

#542

Post by ctrlp »

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…

This line of reasoning is very popular but I don't see how people take it seriously. Twitter (and other major social media platforms) have become de facto "government instrumentalities" under the dual effect of pressures from without and pressures from within.

The same revolving door policies we all recognize in other industries apply to major media companies, as well, meaning the leadership within these organizations is harmonized with the leadership of the state. Moreover, media OWNERSHIP is a subset of portfolios that have massive influence on government policy (and vice versa). Meanwhile, there have been numerous incidents of major political figures cajoling the social media giants to censor speech. When Congress and the President are threatening to regulate your industry while "asking for help," that's a significant leverage over your so-called "private" business.

And, Twitter is not "just a shitty microcosm". For good or ill, Twitter functions basically as the public slack channel of the news media industry. Twitter flame wars wag the dog of the news cycle. It's also a target of propagandists world-wide. Like it or not, Twitter has an outsized influence on public discourse.

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

#543

Post by RustyConsul »

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' historically have gained influence and fielty to a nationstate. We are at a new form of Oligarchy, where the business magnates are able to operate internationally on a scale never seen before.

Historically, taxation has been the most profitable form of revenue generation. But thats no longer the case. With globalism and multi-national product creation, a single person in a nation can be many times richer than any nationstate, with technology above and beyond any nationstate. What happens when musk has electric jets and fully-reusable ICBM's, has remade the world power grid in his image, is one of few entitys even able to get to mars let alone command and control the resources of the astroid belt.

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

#545

Post by ttul »

tbirdny wrote: post #362

For $1B he could make an exact twitter clone, and he could probably do it for much less than that. You might say, yes, but he's paying for the brand, and no one would use his clone. He could pay for a flood of advertising and other promotions to get people to switch. He could pay 42,000,000 people $1000 each to switch to his twitter clone.

Frankly, Musk could pull this off and it might be his plan anyway. Twitter has a lot of tech and very talented people.. not to mention the existing user base. But Musk has the star appeal to draw in famous users and make it at least somewhat appealing to the masses who want to follow along.

The social media space is stagnant and looking for change, but as yet nobody can match Meta’s $55/user in ARPU. Maybe Musk can get there.

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

#546

Post by hintymad »

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…

As much as I don’t like WaPo’s Opinion columns and Twitter’s double standards in content moderation, I don’t think the two companies are puppets of their owners. The staff there have their mostly left-leaning political view point and their own moral standard. I don’t necessarily agree with their view, but it’s their view and their voice nonetheless.

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

#547

Post by hbn »

YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #525

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.…

> 43 Billion Dollars!? Of all the important issues in the world, Twitter is where this sort of money might go?

Wait until you hear what the US wastes on its military every year!

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

#548

Post by codeulike »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #524
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?

I'm wondering if this whole 'buy twitter' idea is some sort of displacement activity from stressful problems in either spacex or tesla. I'm a fan of both companies but I know he drives them hard and takes lots of expansion risks/gambles with them (innovation is a gamble at the end of the day).

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

#550

Post by TimMeade »

I am just going to throw something new out here.

EVERYTHING Elon does is circled around his belief that we need to be living on Mars. Spaceships to get there. Satellites for communications when we get there. Electrical cars since no oil to drive there. Tunnel boring to make the roads and cities there.

Why would buying Twitter be any different? He currently is meeting serious resistance from USGOV and FAA on launching Starships. Postponed many times and may be postponed yet again due to environmental studies in TX.

Maybe; just maybe; total guess here; He thinks twitter would be a benefit to him during future elections to help either steer the future governments to directions he wants; or at a minimum move away from the one currently in power that's holding him back. I can certainly see it helping with his mantra "Going to Mars soon". Just another cog in the engine.

I just do not think this is about the money. A lot of people are talking about his stock price etc. Elon has never been about the money. It is about his end goals. Either the purchase of twitter is his repairing a social injustice he perceives, not normally on his radar. Or; it is a move to further his goal.

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