Elon Musk acquires Twitter for roughly $44 billion

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion on Monday, the company announced, giving the world’s richest person command of one of its most influential social media sites — which serves as a platform for political leaders, a sounding board for experts across industries, and an information hub for millions of everyday users.

Under the terms of the deal, Twitter will become a private company and shareholders will receive $54.20 per share, the company said in a press release. Ownership of Twitter gives Musk power over hugely consequential societal and political issues, perhaps most significantly the ban on former president Donald Trump that the website enacted in response to the Jan. 6 riots.

“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,” Musk said in the release. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

The company’s board of directors met with Musk on Sunday, and negotiations extended into the early hours of Monday, according to a person familiar with the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. The two sides were focused on determining whether Musk had the financing to complete the acquisition, and did not spend much time discussing Musks’s strategy for the future of the social network, the person said.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/25/twitter-elon-musk-deal/

[RKP5637]

1. FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[Katcat]

29. I second that!

[Trueblue1968]

36. i. hate. musk. put him on a 1 wat rocket to the moon. he will kill free speech

kill free speech and make twitter full of lies.

[Cha]

50. Exactly! So That's what our Democracy is

worth to the Twitter guys.

I know that's defeatist.. But it was so Wonderful without seeing tffg's tweets on DU every damn day.

💙💛

[regnaD kciN]

2. In other words, Trump takes over again on 1/20/25...

[NEOBuckeye]

23. Not if he's drooling out the side of his mouth.

I dread the thought of TFG getting back into the White House, but I honestly don’t see him making it back in. He’s in questionable health and May croak first due to all the shit food he eats and his expanding waistline. If Musk does let him back on Twitter, his decline will become even more evident.

[LymphocyteLover]

62. No, not gonna happen. Anyway...

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=dOvgbjLHdpwXNw_59gNsMg

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

78. And Donald Trump is a man of his word! /s

My understanding is he doesn't even use Truth Social and realizes it is a failure.

He'll be back on Twitter.

[Slammer]

106. Unbanning

Yeah, Trump is back on Twitter within a couple of days of being unbanned.

He might make a show about posting the same content to both platforms for a month but he's not going to go without Twitter.

The real question at this point is whether Twitter retained all of his old account information including followers or whether Trump will have to start over again from nothing.

If he's forced to start over again from nothing, it'll be harder for him to regain a following of politically-unaligned people than he had the first time because he's more politician now than celebrity.

[LymphocyteLover]

131. Yes, that an interesting question. I would think from a legal liability perspective, twitter would

have to have him delete a bunch of problematic tweets if he wanted his old account back.

I honestly think twitter won't change that much because there are real legal issues about moderation that Musk seems clueless about

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. This will be fun to watch

Link to tweet

[BumRushDaShow]

16. You are just partying all over the place!

[Ford_Prefect]

99. There goes the neighborhood, again. Libertarianitis uber alles!

Musk's libertarian version of free speech and thought will be the end of Twitter and of civil discourse on the internet.

[Comfortably_Numb]

4. Looks like I didn't over react early this morning when I deleted my account.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

15. Me either.

[Comfortably_Numb]

22. Truth to power. And truth just died on Twitter today.

[luvtheGWN]

123. So glad I never joined Twitter.

Maybe someone should start a Tweeters Anonymous group -- to help wean folks away.

[2Gingersnaps]

30. Let the Great FU begin,

I will miss Badd Company, Auntie Crabby, Rude Pundit, Mary Trump, and some other really great posters, and my Classic Rock fan sites, but even the really lovely Jackson Browne fan site on Facebook could not keep me on that pestilence pit, that oligarch Bond Villain will not be buying my free speech for his 44 Billion.

[Q]

125. 44$....

You can believe one thing-No one pays billions of dollars for something they don’t have plans for. You can bet the farm that the plan has been put in position and is waiting for the day he takes full Control. What is the plan? We can only guess.

[qazplm135]

5. a step on the road to Trump's re-election

He will bring Trump back online within weeks, and Trump will expand his profile.

That's Musk's plan at any rate.

[totodeinhere]

46. Not if Merrick Garland can get off his butt and indict him.

He needs to be convicted of a felony before election day 2024.

[33taw]

6. I just closed my account.

[Pacifist Patriot]

14. Same here

[Akoto]

7. Not even a dent in his coffers. Twitter caved and got robbed. nt

[LiberalLovinLug]

8. Oh gawd, I really thought this was never going to happen.

Now the orange blob doesn't have to start his own SM platform.

[ificandream]

9. Depressing news to start the week

Link to tweet

[Cha]

57. BULLSHIT, musk.. LIES KILL Democracy..

You Rotten Piece of FASCIST SHITE.

💙💛

[hueymahl]

103. Why do you think he is facsist?

[Naio]

10. I close my account.

[Jarqui]

77. +1 nt

[vercetti2021]

11. He'll Myspace it into death

Something will replace it

[tinrobot]

24. MySpaceX

[genxlib]

54. That has to catch on

Perfect.

[LymphocyteLover]

63. LOL!

[nvme]

122. MYSPACEX Make that fucker choke on Twit

stop using the platform

[eissa]

12. The circus is coming back to town

Get ready for the orange menace and his minions to return in droves, and the media salivating over every insane tweet, just in time for the elections.

[2naSalit]

13. I'll be avoiding...

Clicking on the links to tweets from now on too. I don't have an account but I won't look at any content there either. So many posts hrer are linked to the platform so I wonder how that's going to go.

[2Gingersnaps]

32. I will miss the great posters,

but yeah, I deleted.

[C_U_L8R]

17. Musk says he's going to banish bots.

But then who’s going to view the ads and sponsored posts? No ad views, no ad dollars.

Twitter could have gotten rid of bots long ago, but it wasn’t in their interest. It juiced their ad business. Curious what Musk will find out.

[intrepidity]

41. otoh, no shareholders, no fiduciary responsibility nt

[C_U_L8R]

42. We'll see how far that $44 billion goes.

It may be a fast road to zero. Board or no board.

[totodeinhere]

47. He has enough money already so he may not care if Twitter makes any

money or not. And if it loses money that's a tax write off.

[Deminpenn]

64. He doesn't actually

The money's coming from JP Morgan, not Musk

[Igel]

111. In the form of a loan.

Just ask the family whose former house we bought how that worked out.

"It's not my money, the money's coming from the bank. But I get the house."

Two years later ...

They lost the house, a big chunk of change, and their credit rating--and had to declare bankruptcy. So it *so* worked out for them.

Yes, they trashed the house. Which reduced the selling price. Which reduced the amount posted against their debt. In other words, they self-f**ked, and got off over it.

[totodeinhere]

121. As the richest man in the world I suspect that any bank would loan him whatever he wants.

n/t

[Deminpenn]

134. Yes, it's a loan with Tesla stock as collateral afaik

But, iirc, Musk said he's going to move away from ad-based revenue along with making it a privately owned company. If not ads, what's left to produce revenue for an internet/cyberspace based business? There's only a few ways to make money in an online business if you aren't selling an actual product or being a middleman seller (Amazon, Ebay, etc where you get a cut of sales), ads, subscriptions (TPM) or regularly asking users for donations (wiki) or a combination of these.

If Musk had paid for this out of his own pocket, it wouldn't matter, but employees need to be paid and the bank is going to want to be repaid, too.

[bronxiteforever]

58. He supports Russian propaganda. From his own tweet

Link to tweet

For nonTwitter types Musk wrote

Starlink has been told by some governments (not Ukraine) to block Russian news sources. We will not do so unless at gunpoint.

Sorry to be a free speech absolutist.

Also Musk has said that all government speech is propaganda. So be prepared for Russian bots
and videos of Russian rapists running nonstop

[dalton99a]

69. +1

[DSandra]

128. So will Elon Musk essentially hand over America to Putin?

[Deminpenn]

61. Says he's going away from ad based, too

Is what I read.

[rockfordfile]

90. Just look at the pic in this thread at the un-American pos with other un-American fascist pos.

[womanofthehills]

120. I think he said you will have a checkmark after your name if you prove you are a real person

So people can avoid interacting with bots.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. So Twitter is now controlled by a megalomaniac who uses it for smearing people as pedophiles

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/4/20994895/elon-musk-testimony-vernon-unsworth-tweet-negligence-la-courthouse

I really think some reporters ought to be asking him if he's fine with random people making evidence-free accusations of vile criminality against him on his "free speech" platform, or if he might take exception, now he has the power to.

[IronLionZion]

19. He refuses to answer when asked if he'll allow Trump back on

so that means he will do it based on all his talk of freedom and openness.

[oldsoftie]

97. Trump says he's sticking with the "Truth Social" train wreck.

but we all know he lies

[bucolic_frolic]

20. Closing my account before 5pm.

It really has become less useful than ever, and a time drain.

[Native]

21. The stockholders still have to vote on this. Dare we hope?

[bluestarone]

28. Is this for sure?

Can shareholders stop this?

[Native]

31. Yes, they have to approve it. Several articles have pointed this out.

[bluestarone]

38. Wondering if just over 50% approves it

Then its a done deal?

[Native]

45. Don't know. I did read that financial experts estimated its value at $60/share

and didn't think the board would accept less.

[PoliticAverse]

73. Are those "financial experts' rich? n/t

[Native]

75. We aren't talking a lot of individual shareholders....

You have to consider all the funds that have shares.

[Calista241]

25. I rarely post on twitter, I just have an account to follow people that interest me.

The main accounts I follow are NASA accounts, for instance each of the deep space probes have their own account. The account I'm most looking forward to watching is the James Webb space telescope account. I literally cannot wait for Webb pictures to come out, and they'll probably come on on Twitter first.

What is it specifically that people are objecting to? Is it Musk in general, is it we think he'll bring Trump back?

[chowder66]

33. I'm set up in a similar way. I follow lawyers, politicians, scientists, animals and some

friends and fun accounts.

But with that said I'm going to set up another account at commongroundsocial.com and watch what Musk does with Twitter.
I've requested my twitter archive as well.

[Native]

35. News almost always hits Twitter first. That's why I like it.

I'm not deactivating my account until I see how this plays out.

[atreides1]

26. Well

I just deactivated my account!!!

[Katcat]

27. Gone!

As soon as I read this I deleted my Twitter account and deleted the app.

[andym]

34. It's not a done deal until approved by the shareholders

so we will see. If you are twitter shareholder, you have the option of voting for or against the acquisition. My opinion is that it is not a great deal for shareholders.

[Native]

37. They'll get $54.20 a share, and it's at $51.90 now.

[andym]

39. And Twitter was at $71.69 on July 23 2021 $71.69 is greater than $54.20

So it's a great deal for Musk-- going forward I see no reason it would not be worth more than the price last July, given it's influence and growth. Tech stocks are undervalued right now because of the Fed raising interest rates.

[BumRushDaShow]

43. I did hear on my news radio station as part of the CBS breaking

that the markets halted trading on the stock as soon as it was announced they were close. In any case, the market closes in about 4 minutes.

(it's up to $51.78)

[PoliticAverse]

55. And how much was myspace worth years ago? n/t

[andym]

59. Not relevant: Myspace was defeated by Facebook, due to Facebook's better social interactivity

Do you see any Twitter competitor on the horizon that is better and already has or on the way to such a dominating presence? Otherwise Twitter is one of the premier social interaction networks-- worth more than conventional media going forward.

[PoliticAverse]

65. There's nothing magic about things like Twitter, they're just fads. n/t

[andym]

68. Nothing magic? Of course! It's not magic-- it's being the first and dominant mover

with their dominance and effectiveness being key. It's quite rational how tech companies succeed and so far there have been numerous attempts to dethrone them-- all miserable failures. Basically be first in class and/or best-in-class or both. Often being qualitatively best-in-class is the most important.

There are quite a few open-source Twitter clones like Gab or Mastodon, so feel free to try to compete with Twitter.

[PoliticAverse]

72. "it's being the first and dominant mover" - yeah. like Myspace...

or GeoCities...
or AltaVista...
or AOL...

[andym]

80. Dominance is defined over a longer period than these companies achieved

All of those had serious flaws or were replaced by stronger competitors within 5-6 years or so. With the exception of AOL which was around for longer, but it's business model was destroyed by the advent of the internet--it just took some time. It was Compuserve (dominant for over 10 years) that was the best example of what you are trying to say, but it too was done in by the internet. To defeat a dominant company requires qualitatively superior technology-- that is the key.


Twitter has been in existence for 16 years--it has achieved dominance with much deeper roots as has FaceBook/Meta. It's a different era than that faced by Geocities and AltaVista when there was such a large amount of money (dot com era) funding potential competitors.

That's not to say that there are not potential rivals today: Telegram and Discord come to mind because they offer new features and are becoming dominant as well. We will see.

[PoliticAverse]

86. "We will see.". Exactly. Fads end when they end. Dominance ends when it ends.

Predictions are for fortune tellers.

[andym]

110. Predictions are also for scientists

They are called hypotheses, which are predictions about the outcomes of experiments. They are also for investors, but in all cases empiricism is the final arbiter.

[OilemFirchen]

83. No one can ever compete with SuperCalc!

VisiCalc will forever be king!

Lotus 1-2-3 owns the world!

Excel will always be free!

[PoliticAverse]

87. Sounds like you were an early spreadsheet adopter... n/t

[OilemFirchen]

92. Yup.

If someone develops a social media platform similar to Twitter, but more intuitive (like threaded conversations), Twitter will vanish as quickly as Scripsit.

BTW, Xerox can never be replaced.

[PoliticAverse]

94. Or Kodak. n/t

[OilemFirchen]

96. Sears!

The first shop-from-home application in the world!

[BumRushDaShow]

102. Quattro Pro FTW !!!11!!!111!!!

[DinahMoeHum]

40. Good thing I've never had an account with Twitter.

I don't swim in dirty water.

[Warpy]

44. I wonder what will happen if he reinstates the toxic right wingers like TFG

Will his shiny new algorithm tend to isolate him and his buddies in The Liars' Lounge, preventing them all frm pwning any "libs" they find who are talking about anything besides how great TFG is?

Or will he just reinstate the liars and trolls, making it a toxic waste heap like Farcebook?

It looks like he's going to end user name anonymity. While that can make trolls own their free speech, it can also open a lot of people, mostly women, to harassment offline. Elon, this is a very, very bad idea. What you envision as pleasant conversation among equals will be neither pleasant nor equal. Booting the trolls is the only option, and that means TFG

I don't know if I can even log in there any more, I haven't done so for at least five years. I should just delete.

[Native]

49. The crap has already started: "When is Trump coming back?" "Let's storm the Pentagon!"

[Warpy]

70. My sign on is disabled after so many years of giving it a miss

and that's probably a good thing. My answers to those posters:

1. He's got to die first, then we'll see.

2. Go right ahead, honey, I'll post the You Tube video.

[Native]

74. And Trump said today that he wouldn't come back to Twitter. Lol.

Once an addict, always an addict, and Truth Social won't give him the same high.

[Warpy]

89. Who is he kidding? His cheap unsecured phone will melt from all the manic posting

the second Twitter lifts the ban.

AFAIK, he has never posted on Truth Social. Seems it's a bit of a bust and not worth his time.

It's what he gets for hiring the very best people., like Devin Nunes.

[Native]

115. Supposedly he's going to start posting in like a week, and it's basically migrating to Rumble.

[Warpy]

124. Rumble. Now thare is a perect name

for all the macho twits and bully boy hangers on out there.

[jcmaine72]

48. I seldom used Twitter, but I just closed my account anyway on principle.

Musk is obviously nostalgic for the racist shit hole he was born into. Trump's vicious lie-spreading account will be reinstated soon. For all intents and purposes, Twitter is now a hate site. Good riddance!

[Rebl2]

51. Bye Bye

twitter

[Jon King]

52. Musk is the dog who finally caught the car and now he is stuck with it.

The Twitter board did the right thing, took his money. Musk will soon learn that the employees run the company, and good tech employees are hard to find because the competition is fierce. He will learn he can not change much at all without the employees revolting. Twiiter has a great benefits and pay package. Lets see Musk try to mess with any of that.

Move the clock ahead a year and there will be no substantial changes to Twitter besides something as whatever as an edit button.

[Pachamama]

126. +10000

Completely Agree

[geardaddy]

53. Here's a few tweets from famous folks

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=asWXmwDFTo82NlrM1wlu1A

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=asWXmwDFTo82NlrM1wlu1A

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=asWXmwDFTo82NlrM1wlu1A

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=asWXmwDFTo82NlrM1wlu1A

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=asWXmwDFTo82NlrM1wlu1A

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=asWXmwDFTo82NlrM1wlu1A

[Cha]

60. TY! Some made me feel better..I'm staying

..supporting those who stay and Fight!

Link to tweet

I hope Tiedrich stays!

💙💛

[bluestarone]

91. After he runs twitter THESE pics need to be

A daily event on twitter. HE stated post anything right?

[BWdem4life]

56. So...

Does that mean all the annoying links to Twitter with no text will soon be disappearing from this site?

Asking for a friend, as the saying goes.

[rockfordfile]

88. Another message app will be created.

Big opportunity.

[BlueIdaho]

66. There goes the neighborhood... nt.

[Jon King]

67. Just deactivated my account.

I'll continue to donate and vote. But arguing with anonymous aholes is not a good use of time. No one ever changes their minds either way.

[sinkingfeeling]

71. Imagine spending $44 billion for a cesspool.

[James48]

76. its the END of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

Trump and people like him in the future will destroy America with authoritarian lies.

[TNNurse]

79. So the board of Twitter are clearly money whores.

No integrity, no decency...just in it for the money.

[Kablooie]

81. I fear that Musk may be Charles Foster Kane.

In the movie Citizen Kane, Kane starts out energized to do some good in the world. He builds an empire with the goal to improve the world but as he gains power he becomes more and more focussed on that power itself and forgets his original ideals. He uses his power and wealth in extravagant ways to try to find happiness for himself but never succeeds and ruins many other lives in the process.

I think Musk believes that he is buying Twitter for the good of society but the more power gets the more it could be turned towards selfish goals which could become destructive for the rest of society.

We may be moving into a new, even more dangerous future unless Musk is a much more wise and disciplined idealist than most people.

[LeftInTX]

98. Isn't SpaceX a federal contractor?

That's bothers me more than anything...

[BumRushDaShow]

105. Well since Russia is the only other country that has proven tech to ferry people to/from the ISS

at the moment it's either Pootie (who is obviously now out of the question) or SpaceX.

Otherwise you only have the other "devils" (Branson's "Virgin Galactic" that has a contract with NASA for astronaut training in space and Bezo's "Blue Origin", which is trying to get in on the newest crewed lunar mission).

[BumRushDaShow]

101. "Citizen Kane" became my favorite (non-scifi) movie

when I finally watched it a bunch of years ago. It still astounds me given Orson Wells' age at the time he wrote/directed/starred in it and even when it was made, with its use of some unique story-telling techniques.

However I think the Kane character, although supposedly patterned off of William R. Hearst, was shown to have come from a very poor family and was taken in under the wing of a wealthy benefactor (in exchange for money given to his family), where the whole "Rosebud" theme (as a childhood loss) seemed to hint at why he would forever be "flawed" and doomed. He was also shown to be a micromanager and perfectionist.

This was as opposed to Hearst having come from multi-generational wealth and firmly believed in the credos "If it bleeds, it leads", pushing at something until it almost breaks. Similarly Musk came out of a wealthy family, so if anything, the two of them are more directly relatable (although Hearst and his father had also been involved in elected politics).

It would seem that in the modern era, Musk is along with Bill Gates as well (family wealth-wise and oddity wise). Both were rather cutthroat to get where they were.

[CaptainTruth]

82. Musk reveals his lack of understanding in his statement about the "digital town square."

He says "Twitter is the digital town square."

This makes it clear what he fails to understand is that:

1) the "town square" is public property, owned by the people (usually via representative government), &

2) Twitter is a private company, it is NOT "the town square" owned by the people, Twitter has no more responsibility to host the speech of "the public" than my local dry cleaners, that is... none.

This should be interesting, I think Musk is in way over his arrogant head on this one & the results could have legal consequences for him.

[twodogsbarking]

85. Around $225 per user worldwide.

As of now.

[OilemFirchen]

93. I'm keeping my Twitter account. I wanna own my user name.

I will, however, cancel my Tesla order.

And when I do so, I'll announce it on Twitter. Free negative advertising!

[rockfordfile]

108. There are other people that have sold their Tesla cars.

[JanMichael]

95. Most "Town Squares" are publicly owned Elon. Glad I was never on the Twit.

[OverBurn]

100. I guess I don't get closing your accounts, stay and fight for truth.

[hueymahl]

104. We need a Web3 twitter alternative

Truly decentralized, not controlled by anyone, with value generated from content going to the content creators.

It's going to happen - and will be driven by cryptocurrency.

[Simeon Salus]

107. Make hashtag "Qwitter" a meme

Will kill his investment faster than anything else

[flvegan]

109. Free speech, just don't criticize Tesla.

[trof]

112. That's just obscene.

disgusting to the senses : repulsive. 2a : abhorrent to morality or virtue specifically : designed to incite to lust or depravity

No one should be able to pay $44 BILLION for ANYTHING.

[larwdem]

113. tax the rich

if are Dems don't use this as a reason to tax the ultra rich. we may as well take are toys and go the fuck home.

[larwdem]

114. well

let trump back on. the more he talks the better fur us.

[kimbutgar]

116. I have already requested a download of my archived stuff and will delete my account when I get

It.

You know He will reinstate TFG immediately. Twitter is located in the city where I live I wonder how the employees feel about it and will there be an exodus to a new start up to compete with Twitter.

[Joinfortmill]

117. This is not a good thing. We need a Twitter alternative and we need it fast.

[Swamp Snob]

118. Twitter is Bad

Facebook is vastly worse!

[The Grand Illuminist]

119. This buy out is more of the creation

of a MAGA-esk secret society to secure absolute power.

[Aussie105]

129. Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose.

Cost Hughes US $23M in 1946.

Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for a lot more, if you care to do the maths.
($100 in 1946 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $1,474.38 today, so Google tells me.)

I see a lot of similarities there.

But social media reality according to Musk? It's a new rabbit hole, best avoided.

On second thoughts, not a rabbit hole, more a swamp.
'Drain the swamp' to restock it with Musk approved swamp creatures - sounds faintly familiar somehow.
Yep, that is it. Elon has bought himself a swamp!

[Vinca]

132. If the "libs" they want to own leave the site, there will be no one to harass, demean and

threaten. So, like "Truth Social," if there's nobody there to fight with, it's not worth going to as a site and Musk will be left holding a $44 billion empty bag. The only way the sane among us will remain on Twitter is if it is properly moderated and lies and conspiracy theories are weeded out. Something different always comes along and it's not the end of the world if Twitter turns into a total sewer. Seems like kind of a dumb purchase to me.

[hamsterjill]

133. I am so happy that I don't use Twitter.

I think I’ve looked at it less than ten times total and I don’t plan on even doing that any more.

Have fun, Elon. I won’t play your game.

[ck4829]

135. Hahaha, never mind

[leftyladyfrommo]

136. This was dated 4-25-22. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

137. Yup and so was the OP

ck kicked it to get a good LOL out of it!

[leftyladyfrommo]

138. Now they are suing each other. Musk is a really strange

guy.

[BlueIdaho]

139. Correction...

Musk is unraveling.

[leftyladyfrommo]

140. I don't follow him that closely. I just see headlines

My friends were so excited to be getting a Tesla but his behavior is really starting to bother them. They are thinking of canceling.

[BlueIdaho]

141. Tesla may soon be

The fourth best EV manufacturer in America…

[Mosby]

142. I hope he goes forward with a fee system.

It will take care of most the the bots and a lot of the trolls.

It only has to be a symbolic amount, but you gotta provide personal info.