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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

#761

Post by partiallypro »

mike00632 wrote: post #739
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…

"NO RISK"? There is a very clear risk of transformating the social media titan that is Twitter into Truth Social, a sideshow of a forum that is dedicated to the worship of one man. That would plummet the stock price.

This is a fear based on nothing that I keep seeing peddled by people with no experience moderating anything in their entire life, and don't remember early Twitter. Other companies have actually censored theirselves into irrelevance (almost happed to OnlyFans, already happened to Tumblr, Yahoo, etc.) So a model with more fair and transparent moderation would likely be a business boon. Twitter is not at all transparent on why some things are allowed to stay while others are banned entirely.

Also the shareholders would get cash, they would no longer own the company at all and the future of the company would no longer be of their concern. Musk could shut it down and it wouldn't matter to investors, they'd already have their money.

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

#762

Post by cwkoss »

hintymad wrote: post #546
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.

Wapo is a smartly used puppet - if the bias was overt it wouldn't be effective.

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

#764

Post by PaulHoule »

I would say:

(1) Twitter is a poorly managed company and has been for a long time. A shake up could be a good thing.

(2) I don't see Musk as the person to do it. Mostly he uses Twitter to shoot himself in the foot and his free-speech fetishism doesn't ring true. Is he going to reinstate Trump's Twitter account? Is he going to encourage Narendra Modi to use Twitter to organize pogroms next?

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

#765

Post by hypersoar »

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.

It doesn't take a genius to arrive at this strategy. Just tens of billions of dollars.

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

#766

Post by partiallypro »

jollybean wrote: post #655
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.

Elon Musk is not important to Twitter. It's a toy gun pointed at their head. He could maybe maybe start a competitor, but I doubt it would work. 1) He doesn't have the energy for another serious project 2) It would end up being something else, which frankly might be welcome, but it won't replace twitter. Journalists etc. around the world are not going to flock to a 'free speech' platform with little moderation. They…

Journalists thrived when Trump was still on Twitter. It was nightly news and they all RTed him constantly.

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

#767

Post by tonguez »

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #706
dgudkov wrote: post #661

I bet some of those who advocated "it's a private company, it can deplatform whoever it wants" are probably re-thinking their stance on deplatforming from a major social media.

Not really. When moderation goes away, platforms become rife with racism, spam, scams and less than desirable actors. We've seen this with Gab and Parler.

"When moderation goes away, platforms become rife with racism, spam, scams and less than desirable actors."

so... Twitter

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

#768

Post by Melatonic »

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.

Hopefully your correct and Twitter tanks and maybe we can finally be rid of this crap

I don't hate Twitter like I hate Facebook (mainly for ideological reasons and their propensity for exploitation) but god damn is their interface and entire product model annoying.

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

#769

Post by Manuel_D »

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #706
dgudkov wrote: post #661

I bet some of those who advocated "it's a private company, it can deplatform whoever it wants" are probably re-thinking their stance on deplatforming from a major social media.

Not really. When moderation goes away, platforms become rife with racism, spam, scams and less than desirable actors. We've seen this with Gab and Parler.

I think that's more of a product of displacement. Those people get pushed out of big sites into smaller free-speech absolutist platforms. Thus, the proportion of these actors in the latter is much higher. Loosening moderation on a big platform would not have this same displacement dynamic. Sure, previously excluded people might rejoin but the bulk of the user base will remain. So there's no drastic shift on proportions here.

Furthermore, there's a difference between totally doing away with moderation and pruning some of the more ideologically slanted moderation policies at twitter.

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

#770

Post by cambaceres »

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…

> If Musk thinks Twitter is that valuable to take such risks, current major investors will probably want to unlock that value themselves.

Elon is known for doing the impossible once he puts his head to it. Maybe he can promote the conviction that only he can turn the company around.

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