Update: Tweets from Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon and others have been added below. Do you think the Bee’s account suspension caused Elon to buy Twitter in the name of free speech?
Twitter has just accepted Elon Musk’s bid to purchase the company for about $44 billion and take it private.
The battle for Twitter over the past month has been fascinating.
On 3/25, Elon cryptically asked his followers if they believed that Twitter fosters free speech and to vote carefully:
The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
The Tesla CEO later disclosed that he has purchased a 9% stake in the company and asked if people wanted an edit button on Twitter, a popular request:
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
Twitter’s CEO trolled him back with Elon’s own words:
The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully. https://t.co/UDJIvznALB
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022
And later announced that Elon would accept a seat on the board, with an agreement that he wouldn’t take his share of the company above 15%.
Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
But Elon then did a 180 and said he wouldn’t join the board, which would come with onerous fiduciary responsibilities about what he would be able to say going forward.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey suddenly found his voice and said that the Twitter board has consistently been the dysfunction of the company and he agreed that bad boards will kill a company:
it’s consistently been the dysfunction of the company
— jack⚡️ (@jack) April 17, 2022
big facts
— jack⚡️ (@jack) April 17, 2022
so much to say…but nothing that can be said
— jack⚡️ (@jack) April 19, 2022
So instead Elon offered to buy the whole company for $43 billion and the board, including outgoing board chairman Jack Dorsey, unanimously voted to retaliate by adopting a poison pill, to make it nearly impossible to pull off a hostile takeover. Wall Street also doubted that Musk could find the liquidity to pull off the purchase.
But it has never proven wise to bet against Elon Musk. He has successfully pressured the company by reaching out directly to investors, opening the possibility of a shareholder lawsuit if the board wouldn’t negotiate with him.
And now he has come up with the financing and come to an agreement with the Twitter board to purchase the company.
Why does Elon want to own Twitter?
Mr. Musk calls the company the de facto town square of the 21st century and says Twitter is extremely important to the future of civilization. He wants the company to be the platform for free speech across the globe.
He calls himself socially liberal, but fiscally conservative, and a free speech absolutist.
He wants all speech allowed on Twitter, unless it’s illegal or hate speech, while erring towards the side of free speech. He also wants to open the algorithm to allow people to see why some Tweets are hidden and others are promoted and whether a Tweet’s reach has been amplified or reduced by the algorithm.
Accounts breaking the rules should be temporarily suspended rather than permanently.
Here are more of his thoughts on buying the company:
He also promises to eliminate spam bots and verify humans.
And authenticate all real humans
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2022
Presumably, accounts of suspended people, such as Donald Trump, would be reinstated. I’d argue that might be bad for Mr. Trump, who cost himself many votes because of his absurd tweeting, despite having policies that those same voters agreed with. His popularity has grown since being suspended from Twitter and if his account is reinstated, he likely once again won’t be able to resist getting in his own way and hurting himself.
It’s also interesting to note that all of this started in the days after Twitter suspended the Babylon Bee’s account over a parody Tweet labeled as hate speech.
How ironic would it be if all of this was sparked by the suspension of a parody account?
Elon told Chris Anderson, the head of TED, that he didn’t want to own Twitter as that would be a recipe for misery. Did the Bee’s subsequent suspension convince Elon that Twitter needed to be changed?
Indeed, Elon reached out to the Bee’s CEO after they were suspended and before his original 3/25 Tweet on free speech:
Musk reached out to us before he polled his followers about Twitter's commitment to free speech. He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended. He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter. Now he's the largest shareholder and has a seat on the board.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) April 5, 2022
Musk “liked” this. https://t.co/sdPxxgCMny
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) April 11, 2022
The Bee had previously interviewed Mr. Musk:
Check out our full interview with Elon Musk here:https://t.co/8CHBjqvAOY
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) December 22, 2021
Whoever suspended The Babylon Bee a month ago thought it was just another suspension.
— allincapital (@allincapital) April 25, 2022
Talk about a suspension that may have changed history!
In the meantime, Mr. Musk seems to have made up with Jack Dorsey. Perhaps Jack was the one that convinced Elon not to join the board? Though it sure is odd that Jack voted to adopt the poison pill before trashing the board on Twitter.
Your new title at Block is 🔥🔥
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022
Many people are saying they will leave Twitter, but that seems unlikely:
“I’m going to leave Twitter if Elon Musk takes over” is the new “I’m going to move to Canada if Trump wins”.
— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) April 14, 2022
I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
DansDeals has been on Twitter for over 13 years, sharing every deal posted. 2 years ago the company discontinued SMS notifications, which were very useful for people without a smartphone or who didn’t want to have Twitter’s app. Perhaps we can get Elon to bring that back?
No word yet on whether Elon will give me full admin rights on Twitter. 😉
What do you think will happen with a Twitter controlled by Elon Musk? What changes would you like to see?
Would definitely like to see the SMS option back
“Twitter Suspends The Babylon Bee”
Biggest mistake in corporate history.
Or will it be the best mistake in corporate history?
Shareholders get richly paid and a visionary takes over the company.
True, true
It’s a win for America too.
I’m going to make a very clear statement about this: it’s either going to be really good or really bad.
🙂
But probably really good.
Bold 😀
Everything Elon touches turns to gold. Best import to the United States in a long time.
Past performances do not guarantee future results.
True, but I would never bet against Elon Musk.
But they are highly indicative, friend.
Do you think Android or Apple will kick out the new Twitter?
Elon is too smart to let it come to that. The problem they have is more with hate and illegal speech, which Elon has said will still be banned.
And who is deciding “hate?”
yes
I actually prefer Telegram to the SMS option.
Telegram is great, it’s a shame that Whatsapp doesn’t copy some of its features, like unlimited group/broadcast size.
Hopefully Whatsapp Communities will fill out soon
Maybe Elon could buy WhatsApp?
Huh? Forget that noise and just get Simple RSS+ from the App Store.
Question is what happens when the Chinese government asks him to modirate Twitter?
He does have a history of doing what they tell him.
He said in the linked video that they will follow each country’s laws.
What if they ask him to censor Twitter in the US? Or worse share user information.
He doesn’t seem to care much about free speech when given the opportunity to sell more cars
He won’t. Would be the end of the company.
Even if the laws prohibit free speech?
Then free speech would be banned in China.
Darn…Elon outbid me by just $1 billion.
Is this a joke? I haven’t heard about there being a bidding war for Twitter.
Nope. Not a joke.
SHL65 almost bought Twitter.
Then Elon pulled this surprise move and outbid him…
What are the chances that sms will be back?
low
Tech has moved on. No one even thinking of that. What would they stand to gain from that? Plus, it was discontinued allegedly because hackers used the SMS features to hack into Dorsey’s account. Why should they take the chance.
For all you know Dan might use it now to hack into Elon’s Twitter account through some SMS format of Tesla Forums… 😀
If someone starts a petition I guarantee there’s enough bochrim to sign
And Dan doesn’t need sms to hack, unless there’s a tesla forums sms that I don’t know about. So @Dan when you hack please reinstate sms
Donald Trump is looking forward to being back to actively posting on Twitter, and Musk will make it happen.
Probably, but he will shoot himself in the foot soon afterward, as he always has on that platform.
He said he won’t return to Twitter. ( He is trying to push his “Truth Social” )
My guess is Elon will reactivate Trump’s account, and Trump will just post links to whatever he writes on truth social, like people do with Instagram.
Wanna bet that he returns after being reinstated?
They likely would’ve reinstated him anyway when he announced his 2024 run but now everyone can blame Elon
Yes
He will not hurt him self with the “mean tweets” as much as he did in the past . People are much more immuned to his tweets once they saw what they have given up and not having mean tweets. Lots of folks would just focus on the substance and will just wipe off the rest. People arr fed up and want his policies back.
Debatable, but he’s not immune from hurting himself. And he did that consistently on Twitter.
We’ll he won 2 elections…
He can shoot himself in the foot all he wants all day. The wound will never be bad enough to make him lose against Ds’ current standing.
I heard that he won’t return and instead he’ll go to Truth Social.
Of course he’ll be back. Do you really think someone like Donald Trump will simply give up on a free, existing audience of that magnitude?
Politics aside, very much looking forward to it for the entertainment factor.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-will-not-return-to-twitter-even-if-elon-musk-purchases-platform-will-begin-using-his-truth-social
And I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell ya’
He needs to promote his own brand that’s one of the things he’s obsessed with whatever your opinion of him
Do you not understand Trump?
He IS his own brand! The platform is irrelevant, as long as he reaches more people.
He’s not going to abandon his own platform that will never happen
How much$
When’s @Dan joining Truth Social
I have a feeling that financing for Truth was contingent on Trump staying off Twitter even if reinstated. I don’t know where the Truth money came from, but it is unlikely that anyone funded it without protecting themselves in the event that Twitter reinstated Trump…
Which one? How much?
Is it a good price?
Likely he (Trump), will try to leverage his own platform to get a seat at the table as well.
Musk said that he would take the maximum allowed amount of equity partners.
For the record, the proof of funds he displayed to bring them to the table, does not need to be the mechanism he uses to actually consummate the purchase. Therefore, it is likely, that there will be a variety of people buying equity in Musk’s X companies.
Theoretically, Musk could put next to nothing in cash and retain a significant amount of equity. Perhaps even profit off the top.
FWD: from 40404: @NYTimes: Boro parkers petition @elonmusk to reenable twitter SMS function, in return they offer free @tesla charging stations at all shuls. Some rabbis are concerned that this this move might entice teens to have text.
Talmud-Bavli-Bee at work… sign me up for these updates
We’ll get that after he filters the tesla
Doubtful Musk already had 20 million + shares by the time the bee got suspended
seems that it may have been the @elonJet tracker that broke that camels back
https://twitter.com/JxckSweeney/status/1511497312308281354
The short version is that TWTR has a lot of potential that could only be unlocked privately, the long version is that it will take a lot of work and unlike scientific and physics needed to build rockets and EV’s the best social apps require a deep understanding of product design and even then are hit or miss. Will Elon have the time to get in the weeds needed to make TWTR profitable ? remains to be seen
The TED talk with Chris Anderson was on April 14, after the Bee suspension.
The talk was after Elon said he was buying Twitter.
The previous answer was before he announced he was buying Twitter.
The next logical step is to give you full admin control over Twitter’s entire site including access to personal information to all Twitter users, followed by conspiracy theorists wondering who this renegade “Dan” admin/employee is that’s wreaking havoc on the site.
Oh man do we need a like button for comments like this 😀
I’m shocked that through all your excellent commentary on the Musk/Twitter saga, you didn’t once mention your ….. ahem…. interesting involvement in Musk’s other business ventures
Lol, if you insist.
Fill us in Dan! Are you planning a trip to space???
Will Dan accidentally gain full backend access to Twitter?
DEFINITELY!!
It was a contingency of the takeover.
“I’d argue that might be bad for Mr. Trump, who cost himself many votes because of his absurd tweeting, despite having policies that those same voters agreed with. His popularity has grown since being suspended from Twitter”
Do you have any data backing this?
Or just your thoughts?
Every move musk makes boils down to profits
Twitter at one point was much more than $54 per share. The market is low now, Twitter is down.
He will put some work into the site, increase users etc.. and then go public again at $70+ per share when the market it strong again
He will make billions on this deal
He has better ways of making money than this.
I do believe that he feels the need to do something good he believes in first, while making money being secondary in this case.
He keeps saying he wants to bring back true free speech. I’m concerned it will bring back even more haters, I don’t see it being good for us.
theres already tons of hate on twitter but its only sanctioned when its from leftist accounts
Free speech is free speech
Hate speech isn’t free speech. He said that won’t be allowed.
Said he was afraid allowing free speech would mean more (of what in his opinion is) hate speech. But if it’s “speech” it’s allowed even if extremist believe it’s hate. Hate as stated will not be.
The term hate speech is a misnomer.
Calls for violence shouldn’t be allowed.
Calling you names is distasteful but shouldn’t be censored.
Both are called ‘hate speech’.
Surprised to see the most important question has not been brought up yet.
@Dan, which credit card should he be using in order to earn maximum points on the purchase!?
That’s easy!
https://twitter.com/DansDeals/status/1518778855833616384
@Dan Trump’s popularity has grown by over 11 million votes between 2016 and 2020 despite Twitter are you claiming that this number should have doubled by now?
Popularity and voting is based on percentages, not the quantity of people that show up to the polls.
I get that percentagewise he got about 1% less of the total vote casted in 2020 compared to 2016, but shouldn’t he have lost actual votes in RAW NUMBERS if people who previously liked him didn’t like his tweets? And on top of that not only did he not lose any votes, he actually gained 11.5 million which is a net gain of nearly 20 percent.
One way or another, he managed to anger enough people, not to go out and vote for Biden, but to go out and vote against him.
A 1% swing in a few states is all it takes to lose an election.