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Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

reuters.com

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Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#101

Post by jchw »

V__ wrote: post #89

Looking at the problems Twitter has, why does anyone think Musk can even solve one? If one believes Twitter has a free speech problem: Musk shouts about free speech but shut down Teslas PR department, lashes out against any criticism against him, canceled a preorder because he didn't like a journalists' article etc. Musk is great at self-promotion and this often helps his companies in some sense, but what else does h…

The only thing I can think of is that unlike I would assume most executives, he seems to use Twitter much more like the average user. That said, I think Yishan Wong just about hit the nail on the head as to why Musks approach is likely flawed.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#103

Post by shishy »

altacc wrote: post #41

He's already said that he'd follow all local laws so it would be interesting to see if he can find the elusive path of maintaining free speech, following the law and not having Twitter being a toxic cesspool used mainly to shout down those not our your "side". Personally my reservations are because I think running a social media site is a lot about understanding people and defining a healthy culture for your elusive…

I think he already explained the mindset here by differentiating between moderating speech, and moderating behavior. So people who say certain things might still be banned or violate guidelines because of how they say it, but the event would probably be misrepresented as infringing on the right to free speech.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#104

Post by nabla9 »

His offer is funded as follows (from Matt Levine):https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-04-21/elon-g...

1. A letter from his banks offering to lend $13 billion to Twitter, if he buys it, with $7 billion of that coming in the form of senior secured bank loans and $6 billion coming in the form of junk bonds.

2. A letter from his banks offering to lend him $12.5 billion personally, secured by $62.5 billion worth of his Tesla Inc. stock. At yesterday’s closing price, that comes to about 64 million shares, or about one-third of his Tesla stake.

4. An agreement with himself to put up the other $21 billion, give or take.

Musk is the man of leverage and likes to live on the edge. Loans with junk bond rates, his stake on Tesla,

Levine:

>... So Musk will be paying his banks, personally, about $1 billion a year for the privilege of owning Twitter. It is possible that Twitter will be paying him $1 billion a year of dividends, after its own debt servicing costs, but it is, uh, unlikely in the near future. It is more likely that running Twitter will be a continuing expense for him. But, again, he has said that he’s not in it for the money. Spending $33 billion to buy Twitter, and then another $1 billion a year to own it, is I suppose in a way a kind of philanthropy for Musk?

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#105

Post by boredumb »

People act like this is some spiteful thing he's doing in order to just post edgy memes or have a 'private' social media for himself.

Twitter, despite being a toxic place the majority of people avoid, brought in over 5 billion dollars last year. If elon removes bots, welcomes non-extremists back on, gets comedians and entertaining accounts back on board and lets people say what they want instead a bot army of shills repeating verbatim over and over and over... he could see that revenue rise quite a bit through people actually seeing value in advertising on twitter again. If he can keep operating costs down and get the ad revenue up further, he'll be repaying his initial investment within a few years, and if he takes this private he can IPO it again or sell it to someone else privately.

I wish him the best and hope he truly makes twitter somewhere that you visit that isn't just rage bait again.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#107

Post by mattgreenrocks »

mmastrac wrote: post #6

Part of me hopes this is the end of the social media age. I've been on twitter since the very beginning and lately it feels like it's a toxic cesspool on all sides. I say this as a twitter addict and prolific poster over more than a decade.

This is my hope as well. The belief that everyone should be on the same social network is misguided, naive, and renders us too prone to manipulation and misinformation. I look forward to social networks splintering and their cultural influence beginning to wane.

Hoping they end up as footnote in history textbooks of a weird time when people worried about checkmarks and follower counts, and it all amounted to nothing.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#108

Post by cjbgkagh »

V__ wrote: post #89

Looking at the problems Twitter has, why does anyone think Musk can even solve one? If one believes Twitter has a free speech problem: Musk shouts about free speech but shut down Teslas PR department, lashes out against any criticism against him, canceled a preorder because he didn't like a journalists' article etc. Musk is great at self-promotion and this often helps his companies in some sense, but what else does h…

One problem he can solve is Twitter being worth less than $43B, at least temporary.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#109

Post by cslarson »

V__ wrote: post #89

Looking at the problems Twitter has, why does anyone think Musk can even solve one? If one believes Twitter has a free speech problem: Musk shouts about free speech but shut down Teslas PR department, lashes out against any criticism against him, canceled a preorder because he didn't like a journalists' article etc. Musk is great at self-promotion and this often helps his companies in some sense, but what else does h…

I don't think these anti free speech "examples" have the effect that people who cite them expect. Yet they are used a lot which points to a striking disconnect in communication.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#110

Post by vasco »

V__ wrote: post #89

Looking at the problems Twitter has, why does anyone think Musk can even solve one? If one believes Twitter has a free speech problem: Musk shouts about free speech but shut down Teslas PR department, lashes out against any criticism against him, canceled a preorder because he didn't like a journalists' article etc. Musk is great at self-promotion and this often helps his companies in some sense, but what else does h…

He doesn't have to solve any problems, if he buys it, it's his to do whatever he wants with, together with the rest of the up to 2000 private investors. And users are free to leave if they wish as well.
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