Elon Musk

2022 - 4 - 25

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Image courtesy of "CNBC"

Elon Musk's Twitter takeover sets him on a collision course with ... (CNBC)

EU officials Cedric O and Thierry Breton warned Elon Musk he will have to comply with the bloc's new Digital Services Act. Musk wants to reform Twitter as a ...

Breton, a former CEO of French IT consulting firm Atos, is seen as a key architect of the European Union's digital reforms. Companies that fall foul of the rules risk facing fines of up to 6% their global annual revenues — just over $300 million for a company like Twitter, based on 2021 sales figures. For his part, Trump says he doesn't plan to return. Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for the internal market, warned Musk that he will have to comply with the bloc's new digital regulations. But officials stateside have raised concerns over the possibility of Musk reinstating Donald Trump's Twitter account. Cedric O, France's digital minister, said that while there are "some interesting things" Musk wants to push for at Twitter, the EU's new Digital Services Act "will apply regardless of the ideology of its owner."

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Image courtesy of "The Washington Post"

Twitter shares jump on reports a deal with Musk could come as soon ... (The Washington Post)

The company's board and the Tesla CEO are said to be hammering out the final details of his $54.20 a share bid.

But Musk’s financing plan and the board’s willingness to entertain “constructive conversation” makes a deal more likely, according to Angelo Zino, an analyst with CFRA Research. And internally, Twitter employees have raised concerns about Musk’s potential effect on the culture. Musk took a more than 9 percent stake in Twitter earlier this year, leading to two wild weeks of back-and-forth with the company. Twitter had seemed poised to reject the Tesla CEO’s unsolicited offer of $54.20 a share for the social media platform. The two sides were discussing such details as a timeline to close a potential deal and any fees that would be paid if such an agreement later fell apart, according to the report. Musk is worth about $259 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, but much of his wealth is tied up in stock.

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Twitter shares rise on reports sale to Elon Musk is imminent (NPR)

A sale would cap a dizzying saga for Twitter and Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a prolific user of the social media platform.

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Elon Musk's Twitter takeover expected to be agreed within hours (Sky News)

There is every chance that Twitter's board will have extracted an improved offer or terms from Elon Musk as an announcement on a deal is expected later on ...

According to the media outlet, both sides met on Sunday to discuss the proposal - and the social network "is more likely than before to seek to negotiate". Musk argues that the social network needs to be taken private in order to grow and become a genuine platform for free speech. He has offered to buy the social network for $43bn (£33.5bn) and placed the right to uphold free speech at the forefront of his argument for a deal, accusing Twitter of failing its users to date.

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Image courtesy of "The Irish Times"

Twitter poised to agree sale to Elon Musk for around $43bn in cash (The Irish Times)

When Mr Musk briefly flirted with joining Twitter's board this month, Mr Dorsey tweeted, “I'm really happy Elon is joining the Twitter board! He cares deeply about our world and Twitter's role in it.” On Friday, Block, a financial services company led by ...

Twitter shareholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock that they own upon closing of the transaction. After Musk first made his offer for the platform, Twitter launched a poison pill to limit his ability to gain a substantial shareholding. Twitter shareholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Twitter poised to agree $46.5bn takeover with Elon Musk, reports say (The Guardian)

Company close to accepting offer price of $54.20 a share, with deal valuing business at $43bn.

Competition experts have said that US antitrust law is unlikely to represent a problem for Musk, who is also chief executive of the rocket company SpaceX and owns the tunnelling firm the Boring Company but whose business interests do not compete with Twitter in any markets. Musk has more than 83 million followers and a penchant for shoot-from-the-hip tweeting, including a flurry of posts since his 9.2% shareholding first emerged this month that suggested changes to the platform. Musk owns 9.2% of Twitter, and Vanguard, a US asset management firm, is the largest shareholder with more than 10%.

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Image courtesy of "Irish Examiner"

Twitter set to accept Elon Musk's $43bn takeover offer (Irish Examiner)

Twitter is poised to agree a sale to Elon Musk for around $43 billion (€40 billion) in cash, the price the chief executive of Tesla has called his "best and ...

The deal would come just four days after Musk unveiled a financing package to back the acquisition. Still, Twitter would be allowed to accept an offer from another party by paying Musk a break-up fee, the sources added. It is always possible that the deal collapses at the last minute, the sources added.

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Elon Musk to buy Twitter for $44 billion (RTE.ie)

Twitter has confirmed it is selling the platform to billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk in a deal valued at $44 billion (€41bn).

"I hope Elon buys Twitter because he'll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth," Mr Trump added. "I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth," Mr Trump told Fox News. "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," Mr Musk said in a joint release announcing the takeover.

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Elon Musk is acquiring Twitter for $44bn (Siliconrepublic.com)

Twitter is being taken private by Elon Musk, who previously said he can 'unlock' the social media platform's potential.

However, the lawsuit document stated that Musk continued to amass shares before notifying the SEC. Musk has been critical of Twitter in recent weeks. “What should be done?” It came after uncertainty over whether Twitter would accept a takeover offer from the tech entrepreneur. “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it,” he wrote in a letter at the time addressed to board chair Taylor. He added that he believes in Twitter as a platform for “free speech” and said it “needs to be transformed as a private company”.

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Twitter shares rise on reports sale to Elon Musk is imminent (WYPR)

A sale would cap a dizzying saga for Twitter and Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a prolific user of the social media platform.

"The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon's proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. Last week, Musk announced he had lined up the money to take Twitter private. But lack of details about how Musk would finance the deal left many doubting he was serious. Musk began accumulating Twitter shares in January. On April 4, he revealed that he'd become the company's biggest individual shareholder. Twitter's board quickly adopted a so-called "poison pill," which served essentially as a speed bump, a way to slow down Musk from acquiring more shares in the public market, as company leadership weighed the offer. "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," he said in the announcement Monday.

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Image courtesy of "The Irish Times"

Twitter accepts Elon Musk's $44bn takeover offer (The Irish Times)

Twitter shareholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock that they own upon closing of the transaction. The purchase price ...

After Musk first made his offer for the platform, Twitter launched a poison pill to limit his ability to gain a substantial shareholding. Twitter shareholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock that they own upon closing of the transaction. “The president has long talked about his concerns about the power of social media platforms, including Twitter and others, to spread misinformation.”

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Twitter agrees Elon Musk takeover deal (The Guardian)

Tesla chief executive, the world's richest person, wins fight to take over influential social network for $44bn. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

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Twitter reaches deal to sell to Elon Musk for about $44 billion (knkx.org)

The sale caps a dizzying saga for Twitter and Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a prolific user of the social media platform.

"The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon's proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. Last week, Musk announced he had lined up the money to take Twitter private. But lack of details about how Musk would finance the deal left many doubting he was serious. Musk began accumulating Twitter shares in January. On April 4, he revealed that he'd become the company's biggest individual shareholder. Twitter's board quickly adopted a so-called "poison pill," which served essentially as a speed bump, a way to slow down Musk from acquiring more shares in the public market, as company leadership weighed the offer. "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," he said in the announcement Monday.

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Image courtesy of "The Washington Post"

Why did Elon Musk buy Twitter? (The Washington Post)

Elon Musk has said he wants to promote free and open speech on the service, which he has said he sees as an essential place for sharing viewpoints.

Here’s what he’s said about his plan and how fast he could change things. Musk offered $54.20 per share for Twitter and outlined his plan to secure $46.5 billion to finance his deal.

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Twitter accepts $44bn takeover offer from Elon Musk (Irish Examiner)

Musk has signalled that Twitter will be overhauled under his leadership, including changes in content moderation, having described himself as a “free speech ...

However, the apparent opposition of Twitter’s board faded after Mr Musk drew up a $46.5bn funding package for the bid, including $21bn of his own money. He also acknowledged that Twitter would have to abide by national laws governing speech in markets around the world. In a recent TED interview, Mr Musk said he would like to see Twitter err on the side of allowing speech instead of moderating it.

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Why Twitter reconsidered Elon Musk's buyout deal (Quartz)

When Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion 10 days ago, the platform didn't welcome him with open arms. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is in some ways ...

Among them is Ben Thompson, the writer of the popular newsletter Stratechery, who believes that Twitter should go private—even if that means a transformation engineered by Musk, which could mean less moderation and more acrimonious discourse, as well as a larger focus on subscriptions. Twitter’s board had to justify rejecting a generous offer, more than 10% above the company’s current stock price. On April 21, Musk said he has the funding to get this deal done quickly.

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Elon Musk Might Actually Buy Twitter, Like for Real (Gizmodo)

Twitter is gearing up to accept Musk's original $43 billion offer. Apparently he wasn't just trolling.

Musk first announced his offer to buy the social media company at around $54.20 per share on April 14. In premarket trading, they reached about $51.50 per share, but at the time of writing, had fallen to around $50.7. Although the deal is unconfirmed, both the Times and Reuters reported that sources tell them a deal could be finalized and made public later today. If Musk makes the purchase, Twitter would no longer be a publicly traded company, but instead, private. Important to point out though, it literally isn’t. The first amendment doesn’t protect anyone’s right to post on Twitter. Though Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, seemingly doesn’t understand that. Any moment now, a deal between between Twitter’s 11-member board and Elon Musk could be announced.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Unwritten Rules For Company Success (InsideEVs)

Musk has led his companies to success through a variety of means. There are a few specific rules he rigorously enforces that have worked well for his ...

Musk has also made his belief in the free flow of information clear through other public means. As far as big meetings go, Musk believes that they’re largely a waste of time and that they should be infrequent. The rules, as detailed by Your Tango, often pertain to meetings, productivity and the free flow of information.

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Reports: Twitter in talks with Elon Musk over bid to buy platform (WBAL Baltimore)

Twitter's board is negotiating with CEO Elon Musk over his bid to buy the social media platform — and a deal could be announced as early as Monday.

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Elon Musk Will Acquire Twitter (TWTR) (Investopedia)

Twitter, Inc. (TWTR) announced on April 25 that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity owned by Elon Musk. Musk, the CEO of ...

Following weeks of back and forth, Twitter's board accepted Elon Musk's acquisition offer on April 25. The fate of the company is not clear, but Musk has talked about adding features including authentication of all users.1 The deal follows a highly publicized back-and-forth between Musk and Twitter's board of directors.1 Shortly thereafter, however, he backed out of the planned board seat and stated his intention to buy the company. In March 2022, regulators said that they could subpoena Musk regarding his tweets.5 Musk offered to acquire Twitter for $43 billion on April 14.3 On April 15, Twitter's board adopted a limited duration shareholder rights plan, known as a " poison pill," in an apparent attempt to block Musk's acquisition.4

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Image courtesy of "Sky News"

Elon Musk and Twitter reach agreement for $44bn takeover (Sky News)

Although the agreement isn't the final step, the announcement means the Tesla founder is in the end game of acquiring the social media platform.

There are plenty in the tech industry who are agog at the money he has splashed out on a business that is yet to really show its true money-making worth. Dismiss the world’s man at your peril though. The boss of Tesla and SpaceX has a love-hate relationship with the social media platform, revelling in its opportunities for provocation and mischief-making but frustrated by what he sees as restrictive rules. Mr Musk added: "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. "Twitter has tremendous potential - I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it." Twitter has reached an agreement for billionaire Elon Musk to buy the social media platform in a $44bn (£34.6bn) deal.

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Twitter Insiders: Elon Musk Is About to Learn That Space Travel Is ... (Vanity Fair)

Jeff Bezos has The Washington Post, now Elon Musk will have Twitter. Billionaire vanity projects are good for the ego—but Musk is about to learn that ...

Musk was going to join the board of Twitter. Then he wasn’t. Then he was going to buy the company. One person I spoke to who is close to Musk speculated that he had not originally set out to buy the company last month when he began purchasing Twitter stock, and that he had fully intended to join the board of Twitter with the hopes that he could effect change at the social network. If this was the case, the last thing Musk would want is to be told by someone else what he can and cannot say publicly, especially on his favorite communication tool of choice. But along the way, something happened that had set him off—perhaps, this person speculated, he was told that he would not be able to tweet critically of Twitter if he was a board member there. As this was all happening, Twitter was reining in the accounts of people who were using the platform for ill, and started to ban certain accounts, and Musk started to grow frustrated by the fact that “West Coast high tech” was becoming the “de facto arbiter of free speech.” In the news release announcing the deal, Musk said, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” He added that “Twitter has tremendous potential–I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.” A few days later, on March 26, Musk said (on Twitter) that he was “giving serious thought” to building his own social media network, where free speech would be the central thesis of the platform. Musk was given a social-media minder (an "experienced securities lawyer"), who was supposed to police what he had to say. And he’s become increasingly dependent on Twitter as a marketing tool for product releases, as a place to pick fights with detractors of his companies and to just generally fuck with people. A platform that has helped lead to heroic movements that have changed culture but also helped drive division and vitriol globally for the past 16 years. At times, he’s called the platform a “war zone,” and on numerous occasions has said he’s taking a break from using it, only to return a few days (or sometimes hours) later. Twitter said in a statement that the deal was “unanimously approved by the Twitter Board of Directors,” and that it is expected to close sometime in 2022, once it has gone through regulatory approval.

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Elon Musk bought Twitter. Here's what he says he'll do next (NPR)

Before Twitter accepted Musk's $44 billion offer, he has floated numerous ideas for changing the social network. Not all of those proposals have been ...

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Twitter workers face a reality they've long feared: Elon Musk as owner (The Washington Post)

On Twitter, in private messages and in interviews with The Washington Post, employees expressed fear about Musk's $44 billion takeover. Twitter CEO Parag ...

Once the company goes private, employees’ shares would be paid out to them in cash. In the town hall, Twitter executives and board chair Taylor acknowledged emotions were running high for people. The acquisition, which would rank among the largest-ever activist takeovers of a publicly traded company, would take the company private over the course of three to six months, executives said in the town hall. He has also been known as a harsh manager who will seek to fire people on the spot when they are not onboard with his way of thinking, including at one point disbanding his entire public relations team. Twitter was the first company to take action against former president Donald Trump for his tweets supporting Capitol rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, and engineering teams have spent years building tools to fight spam, disinformation and hate speech under an initiative known as healthy conversations. Some tweeted tear-filled emoji and memes of people having emotional breakdowns, while others told The Post they were too in shock to speak.

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Elon Musk's Twitter takeover: what will change, is free speech at risk ... (The Guardian)

Billionaire's buyout of social media company reignites debate about leaving the platform but is it too soon to act – and where could you go?

The easiest way to do that is through the “Settings and privacy” tab in the menu of the Twitter app. It really comes down to why you used Twitter in the first place. It’s partially why Musk might have been motivated to buy Twitter rather than starting his own social media site, like others, including Trump, have attempted. If you’ve stuck with what many people call “the hell site” for this long, it’s questionable whether Musk taking it over will be some sort of final straw. The Guardian asked Twitter what data was retained once a user permanently deletes their account. Musk has suggested he is a “free speech absolutist”.

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Jeff Bezos questions China's influence over Elon Musk's Twitter (The Guardian)

Amazon founder raises concerns after Tesla boss strikes $44bn deal to buy social media platform.

The Musk takeover has been unexpected and controversial among Twitter employees. The tweet said China may now have a way of holding leverage over “My own answer to this question is probably not.

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Twitter founder Jack Dorsey welcomes Elon Musk takeover (RTE.ie)

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has welcomed Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover of his company as "the singular solution I trust".

I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.— jack⚡️ (@jack) April 26, 2022 I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness." In principle, I don't believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. That offer came after the billionaire had bought up a 9% stake in the company and looked set to join its board, before shifting to a takeover bid, saying he wanted to "unlock the potential" of the site. "Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust.

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Image courtesy of "The Irish Times"

How Elon Musk won his Twitter prize (The Irish Times)

On Monday, Musk pulled off a stunning victory, winning unanimous support for his takeover approach from Twitter's board.

Most importantly, it was the $21 billion of equity that Musk promised to commit personally that turned the tide and led banks to scramble for a piece of the action. Musk still has several matters to resolve, the biggest being how he will finance the $21 billion cash component of the offer. In the end, seven banks agreed to finance $13 billion of traditional loans, with another five joining forces to finalise the $12.5 billion margin loan. The lender contacted rivals on Easter Sunday, when some bankers were on holiday with family, and told them they would need to commit by Wednesday, the people added. One banker who has led several hostile acquisitions in Silicon Valley said it ultimately turned into “a very prosaic process”, as Twitter’s directors succumbed to an offer that some of the company’s biggest shareholders urged them to accept. Late last week, Musk went public with the financial commitments needed to take Twitter private, much of it backed by his personal wealth.

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Image courtesy of "Irish Examiner"

Chaotic and crass: a brief timeline of Elon Musk's history with Twitter (Irish Examiner)

The billionaire's purchase of humanity's 'digital town square' is a culmination of his controversial past on the platform.

Musk again ran into SEC troubles when in 2021 he tweeted a poll about whether to sell his stock and proceeded to do just that. He tweeted (then deleted) a meme comparing the Canada prime minister Justin Trudeau to Hitler over Covid-19 vaccine mandates. Musk, unsurprisingly, has not abided by those conditions, flippantly wiping $14bn off Tesla’s value in 2020 with a tweet stating that “Tesla stock price is too high”. In August 2018, he posted that he had funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share – a joking reference to marijuana. Musk has been on Twitter since 2009 and tweeted as early as 2017 expressing interest in buying it. But Musk’s tweets are not all fun and games.

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Twitter lags behind its rivals. Here's why Elon Musk bought it anyway. (The Washington Post)

Twitter has fewer users and less money than many of its social media peers, but it has captured the attention of an influential group of users — including ...

I don’t care about the economics at all,” he said. The Tesla CEO is putting up a significant portion of his wealth to back the deal. After activist investor Elliott Management took a stake in the company in 2020, Twitter announced ambitious goals to boost its business, including increasing user growth and doubling its annual revenue by 2023. “Trump had a relationship with Twitter where he was really good at using the platform to get attention in his presidential campaign and then through the end of his presidency,” Porter said. Experts said Musk is not wrong to target Twitter if he wants to have an impact on public discourse. Twitter had a humble 338.6 million monthly global users last year, according to the estimates.

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Elon Musk's Twitter takeover is just his latest desperate bid for celebrity (The Guardian)

From The Simpsons to Iron Man, everyone's favourite billionaire has been making pop culture cameos to poke fun at how nice and smart he is.

Because nothing in a script will be funnier than the time he tried to demonstrate how strong the glass on the Tesla Cybertruck was by having a guy smash right through it in front of a crowd. Or the time he made a April fool’s joke about Tesla going bankrupt and share prices tanked. But perhaps the most fawning example is his Simpsons episode: season 26’s The Musk Who Fell to Earth, which is truly all his, because how else to explain why this episode exists? Musk is truly the people’s billionaire, in that he has billions of dollars and he’s not a Russian oligarch no one had ever heard of before February. “I’ve got an idea for an electric jet,” he tells Tony Stark in his 10-second scene in Iron Man 2, billionaire playboy to billionaire playboy. (On that note, check out the dedicated Wikipedia page for Donald Trump’s cameos.)

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