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

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

#621

Post by ROARosen » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 4:19 PM UTC

The reason this bothers me in principle, is that whatever the side of politics you are, the "public" will have effectively zero control on affecting any board decisions at Twitter, moderation-wise or otherwise.

Its true that the public had little say in that regard till now but at least this buyout threat shows that it is "possible" to stand up to whatever decisions their board makes.

As an aside, I doubt people and governments would have the same confidence in Twitter were it a private company, which leaves me to believe that this whole buyoff thingy is just a power play by Musk to gain some power over the board without actually joining the board.

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

#622

Post by dukeofdoom » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 4:20 PM UTC

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #105

From observing various internet forums, including this one, I noticed that people from the "first world" countries don't know the value of free speech and often take it for granted. Sometimes even coming to such views as "free speech is dangerous" and that "we should limit free speech" (by blocking the views I don't like). Understand this: limits on free speech are far more dangerous to society than allowing fringe e…

It's getting really bad here in Canada. The governments directly funds, and contributes to the media companies. And recently passed laws for all media companies to be licensed. And of course decided to deny said license to one of his strongest critics, Rebel News. Which I don't much care to watch, but I do on occasion do watch RT do get a different perspective. Just yesterday I found out that RT was blocked on youtube and removed from cable. Just crazy to me that a government thinks it has a right to decide which news organizations I'm allowed to view.

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

#623

Post by mikestew » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 4:20 PM UTC

gunapologist99 wrote: post #521

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…

...and so the board has a serious legal obligation to carefully review this offer and make a decision.

[citation needed] on that "legal obligation" myth that is continually propagated. As a real-life example, there's Microsoft's offer to Yahoo.

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

#624

Post by hayd » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 4:21 PM UTC

TimMeade wrote: post #550

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…

> postponed yet again due to environmental studies in TX.

If Biden picked up the phone to Dickson over at the FAA that PEA could be done in days. Likewise if Biden asked him to "make sure it's all done right" (or something) we're looking at many more months of waiting... and Musk is going to get bored/creative and do stuff like this!

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

#625

Post by labrador » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 4:23 PM UTC

labrador wrote: post #558

Quoted post unavailable.

I guess my opinion is not popular, but I'll just say this: If Musk lets Trump back on I'm deleting my account. I've heard others say the same thing. That's a fact, not an opinion.

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

#626

Post by whatshisface » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 4:23 PM UTC

m3kw9 wrote: post #598

RustyConsul wrote: post #510

> "if my offer is rejected i will reconsider my ownership in twitter." Thats an immense amount of selling pressure on the stock... This is a threat. He's negotiating with a gun to their head.

It will hit back at 40$ is as if the Elon pump never happened, is that so bad? However, it does create pressure from “activitists” to sell to Elon. The main thing is: Is Elon a good leader for Twitter. There is a lot of positives because Elon has already proven himself in multiple companies, plus he understands Twitter as much as anyone from his use of it

>Is Elon a good leader for Twitter.

Since there would no longer be any public investors in Twitter after this, that does not actually matter as far as the present investors are concerned.

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

#627

Post by dkjaudyeqooe » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 4:23 PM UTC

gunapologist99 wrote: post #521

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…

Anyone notice that the price is $54.20?

A coincidence? A week out from 4/20?

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

#628

Post by garbagetime » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 4:23 PM UTC

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.

I doubt he sees it as the best use of his time to build a new social media website up from scratch - I'd be pretty unconfident in such a project's likelihood to see great success, anyway.

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

#629

Post by pid-1 » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 4:24 PM UTC

ryanSrich wrote: post #562

RustyConsul wrote: post #510

> "if my offer is rejected i will reconsider my ownership in twitter." Thats an immense amount of selling pressure on the stock... This is a threat. He's negotiating with a gun to their head.

Seems like an amazing move by Elon. Buy a sizable portion of the business to hold hostage, and then make the company an offer that they essentially can’t refuse because of fiduciary responsibility. If they reject Elon’s offer the stock price will sink like a rock. They pretty much have to take it.

This amazing move is considered a form of maket manipulation in my country. Not sure about US stock markets.

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

#630

Post by ardfard » Thu, Apr 14, 2022, 4:24 PM UTC

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.

It's not the tech that makes Twitter interesting, it's the already established networking power. You can clone the tech but you can't clone the social part.