Elon Musk and Twitter and free speech

[Meoima]

Anyway, this is not good news in my opinion: https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/14/23024905/elon-musk-offers-to-buy-twitter

What I am most afraid of is Musk might have tried to do this to bring Trump back. He said thanks to Trump before. I personally do not think he is that much of a Trump fan. But he is an opportunist and he might think Trump and co would give him more benefits if he brought Trump back.

I don't have a deep understanding of how the Twitter director board functions, the same for business takeovers in the US. Can Twitter do something to counter this bad intention from Musk though?

I am all for free speech. But at the same time, the price of chaos that goes with opportunists and populists is scary as well.

 

[MacMadame]

Musk only has (the last time it was reported) a 9.2% share in Twitter. Therefore, he can't force Twitter to do anything. He has to convince a majority of the other shareholders to go along with him.

There are two ways you can buy a company in the US (probably most places). One is to make an offer and to have it accepted by the people who run the company -- in this case the Board. The other is a hostile takeover. For a hostile takeover, he'd have to convince 51% of the shareholders to agree with him that the offer is good. Since he owns 9.2%, that's "only" 41.8% of the shareholders. So not the full 51%, but that's still a lot.

This doesn't take into account that Musk is being investigated by the SEC for how he got his Twitter shares. If it turns out he broke the law, then who knows what will happen.

Btw, it was originally reported that Musk was going to get a seat on the Board of Directors for Twitter but then it was reported that he wasn't. Since he's not on the Board, he has no vote there and so a majority of the Board will have to agree to accept his offer. If he was on the Board, he'd have one less vote to lobby for.

As for Trump, Musk doesn't care about him. This isn't why he is doing this. He's doing it because he doesn't like how Twitter is run and he thinks they moderate people too much -- mostly him. So maybe he'll bring back everyone who has been banned from Twitter or maybe he won't. But things will change if he owns it.

Of course, it could be like other ventures that people buy and then run into the ground. Maybe he'll kill Twitter and it won't matter.

 

[allezfred]

Musk wants to be free to accuse people who save children’s lives of being paedophiles when they don’t want his help.

 

[Meoima]

I can only hope Twitter will find a way to counter his bad intentions. Any takeovers would be very bad. I have the feeling Musk is an opportunistic populist. He might have various ideas ranging from good to bad. But overall, IMO populists having too much power over these kinds of platforms would be equally bad as dictators in certain regions of the world.

 

[jenny12]

Elon Musk is one of the best arguments as to why billionaires shouldn’t exist. Also, the idea that this guy is some kind of free-speech savior is hilarious considering how he responds to people who question worker violations at Tesla.

 

[MacMadame]

I can only hope Twitter will find a way to counter his bad intentions.

Twitter holds most of the cards. All Musk has is money. (And it's not like Twitter hasn't got money.)

If he offers enough money for the shares, it might be an offer that Twitter's Board can't refuse but it's not like he's going to convince them he'd do a better job running Twitter. It's not like Twitter is in trouble and needs help, either.

This reminds me of when he offered to send some weird submarine to help those trapped kids. It was all about getting in the news and likes on social media and nothing about the stated objective (helping the kids).

 

[Meoima]

Chaos inside Twitter: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/14/business/elon-musk-twitter
I feel unsafe tbh. Musk is erratic and twitter is already crazy as it is. Can the twitter board stop him?

 

[Meoima]

Musk calls himself a "free speech absolutist." He says Trump shouldn't be kicked off Twitter because tech companies shouldn't be the "arbiter of free speech." Yet he routinely silences critics -- both on Twitter and in the Tesla workplace.

https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1514665827483598849?s=20&t=C_7T_-JQrPIC2emoj457lQ

No, I am not scared... I am trying to.

 

[Karen-W]

It's not like Twitter is in trouble and needs help, either.

Well, tell that to its stockholders. Twitter stock share prices have been in a free fall for over a year. 4/15/21 shares were $71.71 at adjusted close. 4/1/22, before Musk began to express an interest in buying a share or a hostile takeover, the adjusted close price was $39.31 - and today's adjusted close price was $45.08.

Twitter, Inc. (TWTR) Stock Historical Prices & Data - Yahoo Finance

Discover historical prices for TWTR stock on Yahoo Finance. View daily, weekly or monthly format back to when Twitter, Inc. stock was issued.

finance.yahoo.com

 

[AxelAnnie]

I think it is great news. Free Speech is only meaningful if it applies to EVERYONE.

From The American President "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours."

And that is what it is about - not censoring people with whom you disagree. Or only including information about the people with whom you agree.

I am not sure where/how the moniker " Erratic" came from.

The pejorative meaning Erratic/inconsistent behavior is behavior that is unpredictable, or may be considered irregular or illogical for the situation, or not keeping with the standards of behavior for a given set of circumstances.


He is unrivaled entrepreneur:. "a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so." The man started with nothing. And look what he has built. He employs over 100,000 people who are well paid, and given a wonderful opportunity to learn and advance.

America is in large part built by entrepreneurs. Think Andrew Carnegie who emigrated here from the lower classes of Scotland.

Henry Ford. n 1891, he met with Thomas Edison and told him about his concept of the automobile. Edison liked the idea and let Ford use his warehouse to develop and manufacture two prototypes.

Oprah Winfrey is a shining example of an American success story. While she did not reveal her past until 1986, Winfrey was a victim of sexual assault at the age of nine and became pregnant at the age of 14 before losing the child during childbirth.
Winfrey, together with Discovery Communications, founded OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) in 2008, another media company that attracts millions of television viewers.5 Winfrey, a TV personality turned entrepreneur, has a net worth of $2.6 billion as of Dec. 5, 2021.6


Bill Gates, one of the most well-known American technology entrepreneurs, is the fourth-richest person in the world with a net worth of over $133 billion as of Dec. 5, 2021.7 Gates grew up in Seattle, Wash., and began tinkering with personal computers at an early age with friends such as Paul Allen. Showing a ton of aptitude and promise, Gates enrolled in Harvard, where he met Steve Ballmer before dropping out to start Microsoft


Larry Page is the co-founder of Google, the world's number one search engine. Google was started by Page and his co-founder Sergey Brin while they were doctorate students at Stanford University. With an initial investment of just $100,000, the two partners quickly grew Google into a multinational conglomerate.

These people made empires, tried new things (many of which did not work) made fortunes/ lost fortunes. And thank goodness for them. We could still be riding horses and using candles in our homes.
In 2015, Google was restructured to form the parent company Alphabet Inc., with Page serving as CEO.11 Page has a net worth of $126 billion as of Dec 5, 2021.7

 

[Meoima]

I think it is great news. Free Speech is only meaningful if it applies to EVERYONE.

From The American President "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours."

And that is what it is about - not censoring people with whom you disagree. Or only including information about the people with whom you agree.

Twitter has already had 39782649784698369483 porn videos and nude graphic and violent images, even child porn. Do you want them all over the platform?

 

[caseyedwards]

More and more frequently twitter is banning people who say the opposite of liberal orthodoxy. That isn’t right! An account was even banned that didn’t even really comment on anything. Its audience was conservatives and because of the comments it was banned. I am talking about “libs of Tik tok” an account that didn’t comment but which the comments mocked liberal orthodoxy was banned. I remember when internet was new and there was all this talk about how “you can say anything on it and anything goes”- that is totally disappearing because the most liberal people in America do not believe people who disagree with what they say should be allowed to say it. And twitter has adopted that. One of the most popular vehicles for expressing speech In America is quickly becoming a place where nothing conservative can be said. I hope musk buys twitter and reverses that.

 

[jenny12]

He is unrivaled entrepreneur:. "a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so." The man started with nothing. And look what he has built. He employs over 100,000 people who are well paid, and given a wonderful opportunity to learn and advance.

America is in large part built by entrepreneurs. Think Andrew Carnegie who emigrated here from the lower classes of Scotland.

Henry Ford. n 1891, he met with Thomas Edison and told him about his concept of the automobile. Edison liked the idea and let Ford use his warehouse to develop and manufacture two prototypes.

Oprah Winfrey is a shining example of an American success story. While she did not reveal her past until 1986, Winfrey was a victim of sexual assault at the age of nine and became pregnant at the age of 14 before losing the child during childbirth.
Winfrey, together with Discovery Communications, founded OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) in 2008, another media company that attracts millions of television viewers.5 Winfrey, a TV personality turned entrepreneur, has a net worth of $2.6 billion as of Dec. 5, 2021.6


Bill Gates, one of the most well-known American technology entrepreneurs, is the fourth-richest person in the world with a net worth of over $133 billion as of Dec. 5, 2021.7 Gates grew up in Seattle, Wash., and began tinkering with personal computers at an early age with friends such as Paul Allen. Showing a ton of aptitude and promise, Gates enrolled in Harvard, where he met Steve Ballmer before dropping out to start Microsoft


Larry Page is the co-founder of Google, the world's number one search engine. Google was started by Page and his co-founder Sergey Brin while they were doctorate students at Stanford University. With an initial investment of just $100,000, the two partners quickly grew Google into a multinational conglomerate.

These people made empires, tried new things (many of which did not work) made fortunes/ lost fortunes. And thank goodness for them. We could still be riding horses and using candles in our homes.
In 2015, Google was restructured to form the parent company Alphabet Inc., with Page serving as CEO.11 Page has a net worth of $126 billion as of Dec 5, 2021.7

Listing a bunch of rich people won’t change the fact that Elon Musk: 1) is not a degreed engineer 2) leveraged his PayPal money to take over Tesla ( a company he did not found) 3) has a family who owned an emerald mine in South Africa until Apartheid ended. Don’t act like he’s some kind of genius who did all this out of thin air. Musk benefitted from luck, colonization, and nepotism to get where he is.

 

[Lemonade20]

If I had $43 billion, I wouldn't waste it on a social media platform like Twitter. There are far better ways to put that to good use.

 

[MacMadame]

4/1/22, before Musk began to express an interest in buying a share or a hostile takeover, the adjusted close price was $39.31

That is not a bad stock price when you look at Twitter's actual financials.

 

[allezfred]

One of the most popular vehicles for expressing speech In America is quickly becoming a place where nothing conservative can be said.

Twitter is a private company. Free speech doesn’t apply. The good news for you is you can still attend all those MAGA rallies and then come here and pretend you are not a Trump supporter.

 

[Karen-W]

That is not a bad stock price when you look at Twitter's actual financials.

Way to cherrypick your way into positive spinning the fact that their stock price has fallen $30 in the last year. I'm not sure someone who bought Twitter stock a year ago would feel the same as they look at a 54.8% loss in their investment.

And if you are looking at Twitter's financials, wouldn't you question exactly what the Board of Directors and key executive staff are doing that is (or isn't) improving the bottom line? Perhaps a shake up is very much what is necessary at Twitter. After all, whatever they're currently doing certainly isn't working.

 

[nylynnr]

Twitter is a private company. Free speech doesn’t apply.

Twitter is a publicly traded company. The board has a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to maximize share price. Musk says he wants to take it private.

 

[allezfred]

Twitter is a publicly traded company. The board has a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to maximize share price. Musk says he wants to take it private.

Okay, it’s a publicly traded company. Laws on free speech still don’t apply.

 

[Cachoo]

Okay, it’s a publicly traded company. Laws on free speech still don’t apply.

Thank God...it has been heavenly not hearing from the orange oompa-loompa on a hourly basis. I thought he was starting his own version of tweeting anyway.

 

[skategal]

He can acquire it if he throws enough money at it.

If stock prices were over $70 last year and down to $40 this year, I would think he is going to have to pony up big amounts to take it.

I don’t think he will get it offering $40 per share.

Is he willing to pay $55-60 or more per share?

 

[nylynnr]

Is he willing to pay $55-60 or more per share?

Musk is offering -- I think -- $54.20 per share, at the time of the offer about 40% above current price per share. The board either has to accept the offer or make a counterattack. Other large shareholders, Vanguard Group, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, State Street etc., may not want to go along and may counter. It will be interesting to see how progressives and liberals spin BlackRock -- a hedge fund buying up real estate and jacking up rents across the U.S., while investing in Chinese military production -- as a savior from Musk, who for all his faults promotes electric vehicles for the masses.

 

[skategal]

Musk is offering -- I think -- $54.20 per share, at the time of the offer about 40% above current price per share. The board either has to accept the offer or make a counterattack. Other large shareholders, Vanguard Group, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, State Street etc., may not want to go along and may counter. It will be interesting to see how progressives and liberals spin BlackRock -- a hedge fund buying up real estate and jacking up rents across the U.S., while investing in Chinese military production -- as a savior from Musk, who for all his faults promotes electric vehicles for the masses.

I bet $60 would take it for sure.

$54 is right in that grey area, isn’t it?

 

[nylynnr]

$54 is right in that grey area, isn’t it?

Correct, $54 isn't going to cut it.

 

[caseyedwards]

Twitter is a private company. Free speech doesn’t apply. The good news for you is you can still attend all those MAGA rallies and then come here and pretend you are not a Trump supporter.

I didn’t say anything about that. When twitter began it allowed conservatives to say basically anything. Now it is banning most of them or even conservatives who just post liberal statements to mock them! This is a private company but it used to be a lot different and musk wants want to return it to its old ways.

 

[once_upon]

I bet $60 would take it for sure.

$54 is right in that grey area, isn’t it?

Musk is a businessman-he'll start with as low a bid as he thinks will work. Then work his way up from there.

 

[allezfred]

Musk, who for all his faults promotes electric vehicles for the masses.

“Promotes” - he sells cars which start at €52,000. You make him sound like he is some sort of a philanthropist giving away things for next to nothing.

 

[once_upon]

And then there is this

https://twitter.com/CheriJacobus/status/1514828256712798210?t=InSBBq-Jd3A-vb0cyhTcwA&s=19

 

[nylynnr]

“Promotes” - he sells cars which start at €52,000. You make him sound like he is some sort of a philanthropist giving away things for next to nothing.

Hardly. "Promotes" as in, to present goods for buyer acceptance through advertising and publicity. Had I meant "giving away," I would have typed "giving away." Like Twitter, Tesla is a public company, not a private non-profit or government entity.

 

[Judy]

I think he’s a strange guy. Not good.