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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

#771
This is terrific. He said it will require threat with guns to get them to violate free speech. If true, this type of leadership is exactly what humanity needs.

I still don't understand the interest individuals have in proprietary, restrictive, unnecessary, platforms.. but for those who tolerate that sort of thing, I assume Twitter will become more valuable to them.

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

#772

> "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.

I hope the short sellers who have a long standing hatred of Musk short the hell out of Twitter and make a ton when this offer is rejected.

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

#774
post #580

> "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.

To me, the main message is that he wasn't really serious about Mars at all, or even about SpaceX, or Tesla -- never mind global climate catastrophe . Were I a Twitter stockholder I might perceive a different emphasis.

I think there's a credible argument that SpaceX is not currently cash blocked. Same may apply for Tesla.

He may have just run out of good places to put it.

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

#775

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…

It's such a dichotomy. Twitter's main assets are its users. Twitter is valuable only because of its user base. And the users do have a say. If majority of the users decide against this takeover, they can boycott the platform. But a collective action at this scale is pretty difficult to orchestrate. It's quaint, users have the power to shut down Twitter, but still they can't do it.

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

#777
It's sorta funny; I had a call scheduled to talk to a recruiter at Tesla but seeing this reminded me just what kind of guy is ultimately the CEO of the company. I feel very strongly that company culture permeates from the top, and I don't want to swim in whatever cesspool is leaking from the top of that pyramid.

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

#778
I am a Musk fanboy. But I don't think he should be a gatekeeper for free speech evangelism. No matter how fair Elon thinks he is, a completely private entity or person cannot guarantee unbiased free speech. There has to be regulation and oversight.

So if Musk wants to take over Twitter, sure, no one's going to stop him. But let's not expect it means that free speech principles will be upheld. It's probable that under Elon's regime, Twitter might suppress anti-Tesla topics.

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

#779

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…

> There's no reason to assume Twitter shares can't reach the same levels ever again but it depends on how far that "again" is. If you bought at $33 a month ago, you'll be now getting a 60% return. You can put that in another less risky investment and still have a very healthy return over the next 5 years, say 5% , less than the historical sp500 rate, you'd get to ~$69. So if Twitter gets back to $70 in five years Mus…

Think about it this way – if Twitter shares were to rise ~17% from where they are today, would >50% of investors immediately hit the sell button? If not, then why would the same number agree to this deal?
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