Elon Musk acquires Twitter for $44 billion. Twitter has accepted Elon Musk’s offer to buy the firm for $44 billion, according to a press statement issued today by the company. Musk paid $54.20 per share for the firm, which was the same amount he offered on April 14th.
“A FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY IS BASED ON FREE SPEECH.”
In the press announcement, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal praised the transaction as well. In an accompanying statement, Agrawal added, “Twitter has a purpose and importance that touches the whole globe.” “We are very proud of our staff and motivated by work that has never been more critical.”
In an SEC filing on Thursday, Musk outlined his financial strategy, which includes $25.5 billion in loans and $21 billion in personal equity. According to analysts, the loans might cost Twitter up to $1 billion per year in maintenance expenses, or nearly 20% of its annual income.
Twitter’s board enacted a “poison pill” mechanism shortly after Musk disclosed the purchase proposal, implying that it planned to reject Musk’s takeover. The reason for the company’s change of heart is unknown. According to a New York Times story published on Monday, Twitter workers are split at the announcement, with little information about the continuing discussions.
It’s unclear how Musk will affect Twitter or where he’ll begin making adjustments. He surveyed Twitter users on the establishment of an “edit” button, which Twitter was already working on when he initially revealed his 9.2 percent ownership in the company. Later, he proposed removing Twitter Blue’s advertisements, cutting the membership fee, and introducing Dogecoin as a payment option.
Musk has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with Twitter moderation, identifying himself as a “free speech absolutist” and voicing worries about how the site might moderate under his leadership. In an interview with Chris Anderson at TED 2022, Musk remarked, “It’s simply incredibly vital that people have the reality and the idea that they can talk freely within the confines of the law.” “I believe that the more the faith in Twitter as a public forum, the lower the civilizational danger.”
On April 14th, Musk made an offer to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per share. The offer came after Musk revealed that he had purchased a 9.2 percent interest in Twitter, making him the company’s biggest individual shareholder at the time. Musk was once given a place on Twitter’s board of directors, but the transaction fell through since a seat on the board would restrict him from purchasing more than a 14.9 percent share in the firm.
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What Elon Musk said
“Free speech is the foundation of a functional democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where important issues affecting humanity’s future are discussed.” I also want to make Twitter better than it has ever been by adding new features, opening up the algorithms to boost trust, beating spambots, and authenticating all people. “I look forward to working with the business and the community of users to unleash Twitter’s immense potential,” Musk stated in a press release issued to his Twitter account.
Changes to Twitter coming
Elon Musk, a prolific tweeter with over 83 million followers, says that “free speech absolutism” is the way he thinks about it. Since then, he has talked about what he wants to see happen on the platform, like ending content moderation and allowing users to change their tweets.
It was Musk’s idea for Twitter to let people speak freely instead of trying to stop them. He said he would be “very reluctant” to delete tweets and would be wary of long-term bans. Musk said it was “quite dangerous” to have “tweets mysteriously rise and fall” and to have a “black box algorithm.” Also, he said that Twitter would have to follow the rules of each country when it sells its products in different parts of the world.
Twitter users have been divided by the news that the company has taken over the site. Republicans in Congress have asked for former President Trump’s Twitter account to be reinstated. Before he was permanently banned after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Trump was the most popular person on the platform. Liberals and people who study online speech said that because of Musk’s power, the platform could become a place for abuse and mud-slinging.
The nonprofit Media Matters for America said in a statement that giving Tesla CEO Elon Musk the keys to Twitter will “undoubtedly let loose the conspiracy theories that the platform has worked so hard to stop.”
★ Create edit button
An edit button is one of the most requested product upgrades among Twitter users. Twitter, unlike Facebook, Instagram, and other social media applications, does not allow users to edit information after it has been published.
Musk has said that he favors the ability for individuals to modify the content of their tweets, a suggestion that has sparked a heated dispute among academics, journalists, and other major Twitter users.
Experts worry that adding an edit option will be weaponized by bad actors who would use it to cover up abuse or harassment as if it never occurred or to deceive or manipulate others.
Others, however, believe that safeguards could be put in place to allow tweets to be updated to remove mistakes while also displaying a history of how the tweet was altered to preserve the original message.
★ revealing Twitter’s dense algorithm to the public
Musk has said that the software that controls what users see on Twitter and how far material spreads should be opened open. He favors putting Twitter’s algorithm on GitHub, a prominent website for programmers to share code.
While some proponents of increased transparency in social media businesses argue that disclosing Twitter’s thick and intricate algorithm to the public will achieve nothing, others argue that it would. Allowing everyone to access Twitter’s algorithm might also provide spammers and malevolent actors an opportunity to take advantage of the system.
The fact that a social network on the scale of Twitter handles billions of pieces of material every day is another factor to consider. The rationale behind how and why tweets go viral, as well as how Twitter’s recommendation system works, is so thick and sophisticated that even the company’s own software developers are baffled by it. Without the underlying user data, which would be private, the algorithm would likely give little hints as to how Twitter’s ranking system works.
★ Combating the rise of bots on Twitter
Another move Musk supports is combating the rise of bots on Twitter, which are false accounts that are designed to reply to tweets on certain themes.
Musk’s business empire is infamous for attracting bots, including bots that promote his electric vehicle firm Tesla and attack Musk’s opponents.
He has not said that he would want to temper such bots, but he has proposed that scammy bots advertising bitcoin scams be cracked down on.
“We will battle the spambots or die trying if our Twitter bid succeeds!” Musk said in a tweet last week that he wants to “authenticate all actual persons.”
It’s worth noting that Twitter currently has strict anti-spam policies in place, including prohibitions on things like using false accounts and bots to artificially affect discussions on the network, so the issue remains as to how Musk would improve on an existing strong anti-spam policy.
★ Should not have to view commercials, should be less expensive
Currently, advertising accounts for about 90% of Twitter’s income, but the firm has struggled to lure advertisers to the site, which often devolves into political firestorms and nasty online brawls.
The corporation will no longer be under the same pressure from shareholders to consistently increase advertising income now that it is private. Musk has suggested that it switch to a subscription model.
Last year, Twitter introduced Twitter Blue, a premium service that costs $2.99 a month and includes features such as an undo button that enables users to retract tweets before they are published.
Musk has said that Twitter Blue should be less expensive, that users who pay should not have to view commercials, and that the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which began as a joke, should be accepted as a means of payment for a Twitter membership.
Should Donald Trump be re-instated?
Trump was banned from the platform for saying things that broke the rules and sparked a siege on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Musk has not said publicly whether he would let him back in.
He called Musk a “good man,” and he was happy that the billionaire bought Twitter. Trump said he has no plans to try to get back on Twitter. Instead, Trump said that he will be working on his own social network called Truth Social.
A Twitter employee questioned CEO Parag Agrawal if Trump would be restored at an all-hands meeting on Monday afternoon. That was a query for Musk, according to Agrawal.
“We don’t know which path the platform will go after the transaction happens,” he added.
Why Elon Musk acquires Twitter?
can presume he’s doing this because he has a legitimate set of political and social convictions about how Twitter should be governed, and he believes it isn’t being run in that manner at the moment. can believe that he derives a great deal of joy and value from tweeting and that he would want it to be tailored to his needs. Due to his strange persona on Twitter, the value of his firm is increased, and as a result, he obviously recognizes the importance of tweeting and likely intends to claim ownership of it for himself in the future.
