Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

511–520 of 1001 posts

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#511

Post by MrMan »

tonguez wrote: post #176
nickysielicki wrote: post #29

I don’t understand how any board can implement a “poison pill”, not just Twitter but Netflix and others, and not be found working against the interest of shareholders. Can anyone help me understand? You’re categorically changing the profile of the stock. This has a chilling effect on large investors, including but not limited just to Musk, right? Vanguard, for example, has just had its range of further investment lim…

"Who does this benefit besides the board?" the people who run the US/world who depend on censorship to maintain their power

"they" if there is such a they, depend far more on social media hypnotizing us and controlling what we perceive and believe. its not the absence of free speech that is the problem, its that truth about our situation cannot make a dent in our psyches while we are hypnotized with a firehose of propaganda and marketing.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#512

Post by scythe »

wwweston wrote: post #413
scythe wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Icahn was claiming that Netflix was undervalued. To be fair, he was also angling for an acquisition. But a bid like that usually has a half-life; the market trends to a good price — and indeed, Netflix doubled in value by mid-2013. Elon is arguing that Twitter is mismanaged. He already probably pushed them on the edit button, even though they claimed he didn't. If he's right — and Goldman Sachs seems to agree — he co…

> Elon is arguing that Twitter is mismanaged. Anyone who thinks this is manifestly true should read this take from an ex-CEO of Reddit: https://twitter.com/yishan/status/1514938507407421440 tl;dr: managing human interaction in any environment with limited accountability is a lot harder than it looks Also, there's the question of by what metrics one would argue it's mismanaged. Revenue and engagement trends? Profitabi…

I mean, if you take it as a case for why moderation is hard, that's fair. But while Elon describes himself (identity politics) as a "free speech absolutist", his concrete proposals seem to include things like an edit button, long-form tweets and some monetization strategies.

I think the fairer critique of modern Twitter is that it prioritizes the needs of media personalities and PR firms over ordinary users, not that it isn't "free" enough. I am blandly optimistic about the prospects of things being shaken up at Twitter, and for who Elon is, it could easily be someone much worse.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#513

Post by lettergram »

a-dub wrote: post #501
hooande wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As is detailed by many smart people below, fiduciary duty lawsuits are difficult to win. They'd pretty much have to have board members emailing each other saying "This would be in the best interest of shareholders, but let's screw them over instead" This was an epic debacle. Musk invested 4 BILLION dollars in an asset of questionable value, because "free speech". If he times it right he could come out ahead financial…

from what i understand it's a matter of ideals combined with the technologist's desire to see the machines (all types, including sociopolitical) work correctly. he wants to see the first amendment function with autistic precision. he wants to remove any messy personalization because it interferes with that purity. he wants fully transparent moderation and proof of fairness. he doesn't like the idea that one organizat…

I think musk believes we wouldn’t be on the midst of WWIII if free speech was allowed.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#514

Post by WaxProlix »

pbreit wrote: post #508
burnished wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not getting the impression that his actions are the result of a highly polished corporate public personna, I think his actions make way more sense if you imagine that he's just some regular, kinda bright, really eccentric asshole with more money than god. Like, you can probably imagine at least one person you know acting this way if they discovered a genie.

"asshole" What has he done to deserve that label?

You should do a google search before posting on HN. Dude's done tons of really mean, rude, or questionable things. At many levels. It's not on the OP to prove it to you with exhaustive sources or whatever when you can just look around you and get examples.

But since you want an actual link, here: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=elon+musk+douchebag&ia=web

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#515

Post by burnished »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #470
tayo42 wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> opens sourcing Twitter algorithm People need to stop saying this. It's nonsense. Or maybe keep saying it so we know your clueless about how anything works that your commenting on

> It's nonsense Why? (Honest question.)

Also genuine, why would a person believe that would happen? The foremost thing that comes to mind is they'd be giving something of great value and receiving nothing in return.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#516

Post by codedokode »

PeterisP wrote: post #415
the_svd_doctor wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. If I own 10% of a company, how can the board just decide through some mechanism that I now really own like 8% ?

Yes, but that mechanism - issuing and selling new shares - brings in additional external money to the company so that afterwards you own 8% of a bigger pie.

Maybe you are right, but the instant price of stock will probably fall down after "dilution", so for example if you had $10 000 worth of stock before dilution, and you want to sell it the next day, you probably will get less than $10 000 because now there are more shares available in the market (more supply, but the same demand as yesterday).

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#517

Post by kixiQu »

pbreit wrote: post #508
burnished wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not getting the impression that his actions are the result of a highly polished corporate public personna, I think his actions make way more sense if you imagine that he's just some regular, kinda bright, really eccentric asshole with more money than god. Like, you can probably imagine at least one person you know acting this way if they discovered a genie.

"asshole" What has he done to deserve that label?

I mean, you don't have to believe it makes him one, but it's not like people can't find examples of things that they might consider worth the label:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

his defense being....

> Mr Musk told the court this week the phrase "pedo guy" was common in South Africa, where he grew up.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#518

Post by kixiQu »

pbreit wrote: post #507
hooande wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As is detailed by many smart people below, fiduciary duty lawsuits are difficult to win. They'd pretty much have to have board members emailing each other saying "This would be in the best interest of shareholders, but let's screw them over instead" This was an epic debacle. Musk invested 4 BILLION dollars in an asset of questionable value, because "free speech". If he times it right he could come out ahead financial…

An L for Twitter inc, perhaps. OP did not say shareholders would win their lawsuits. Elon obviously has zero interest in a financial return. It's clear he genuinely believes Twitter could be better, especially around free speech.

If you lose a bunch of money and don't change the "free speech" policy of a website, isn't it still an L?

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#519

Post by anonu »

friesfreeze wrote: post #223
hedora wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, if some ETF accidentally exceeds 15%, then what? First of all, that'll screw over a bunch of small investors, right? Second, could Elon swoop in at that point? Edit: Also, if Elon is reading this, I'll happily buy 14.9% of twitter, and vote as part of your block. Just pay me enough to cover the sale and taxes, plus 1%.

Poison pills often have exemptions for passive investors such as ETFs.

Don't think that's true. ETF fund managers, when faced with a corporate action decision, will always vote for whatever maximizes their shareholders value.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#520

Post by [deleted] »

hooande wrote: post #485
toephu2 wrote: post #457

Wow, my prediction is Musk will walk away, Twitter stock price will tank, and Twitter will be flooded with thousands of shareholder lawsuits (for breaching their fiduciary duty).

As is detailed by many smart people below, fiduciary duty lawsuits are difficult to win. They'd pretty much have to have board members emailing each other saying "This would be in the best interest of shareholders, but let's screw them over instead" This was an epic debacle. Musk invested 4 BILLION dollars in an asset of questionable value, because "free speech". If he times it right he could come out ahead financial…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN