I made an offer https://t.co/VvreuPMeLu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022
"On April 13, 2022, the Reporting Person delivered a letter to the Issuer (the 'Letter') which contained a non-binding proposal (the 'Proposal') to acquire all of the outstanding Common Stock of the Issuer not owned by the Reporting Person for all cash consideration valuing the Common Stock at $54.20 per share (the 'Proposed Transaction'). This represents a 54% premium over the closing price of the Common Stock on January 28, 2022, the trading day before the Reporting Person began investing in the Issuer, and a 38% premium over the closing price of the Common Stock on April 1, 2022, the trading day before the Reporting Person’s investment in the Issuer was publicly announced."
From Musk's letter to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor: "I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy... Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it."
ADDED: He's promising us free speech. Can we trust him? I don't know, but: 1. We can't trust the current owners of Twitter, and 2. We need to stay engaged and hold his feet to the fire: You promised us free speech, now, and you must give it to us. That won't assure that we get free speech. It will always be a struggle. And not just with him, but with ourselves. You can't know that you will continue in your love for free speech. You may love it in the abstract, but you might fall out of love if you really see it in practice.
Posts
84 comments:
Nice. I guess he really cares about free speech…
And I've got my popcorn.
This could be the greatest show of the century. It'll be written about in business school books for years to come. IF he doesn't get chained up by the SEC and 'Journalists' who will cry "Monopoly!!". Suddenly, one man owning a major communications source will be seen as a bad thing. Watch for Amazon Web Services Jeff Bezos to raise the alarm in his Washington Post about solo ownership of major communications platforms.
Look for Google and Zuckerberg to raise holy hell through their media paid minions. Free Speech is at stake here, don't you know! (they'll tell you that Musk will be a stifling of free speech).
The reality is that Elon Musk could possibly release more free speech on the world than the Barons of the World are ready for. It will be an interesting run.
That is a very high premium. Twenty percent is usually enough.
The way these things usually go, management will send a letter to shareholders saying under no circumstances tender your shares to Musk because $54 doesn't represent the true value of the company, and the shareholders will tender their shares to Musk, anyway enough to take over the company, and management and the board are replaced.
Popcorn time!
"Elon, what is best in life?"
Elon: "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their soyboys and intolerant woke progressives."
AA>You can't know that you will continue in your love for free speech. You may love it in the abstract, but you might fall out of love if you really see it in practice.
Not a chance, I'll sooner fall out of love with fresh air.
oh yeah . . .
oh yeah . . .
Yesss!!
If this happens and Elon breaks the Big Tech Cabal wrt censorship for wrong-think, it will be a win.
I do trust Elon. In any event he can't be worse than current management.
You can't know that you will continue in your love for free speech. You may love it in the abstract, but you might fall out of love if you really see it in practice.
You could say this about your love for anything, or anyone, if you consider love to be passive, something that just happened to you. If you consider it to be a commitment, though, and an action, something you do regardless of what's going on in the moment, you probably won't "fall out" of it so capriciously.
Seems to me a commitment to love of free speech is worth making, come hell or high water.
So, you're one of the people that HATES that guy; and EVERYTHING he stands for..
Oh, by the way; he just bought the company you work at
haha
What did we do to deserve that… lawyers menstruating.
the layoffs are coming! the layoffs are coming!!
run up into the Boston church, and light some lanterns.. The layoffs are coming!
From March 25 comment thread.
Harsh Pencil said...
I think Musk understands that because of network externalities, Twitter isn't going to be replaced. I'm guessing he is thinking of buying it and making it free speech for all. Market cap of twitter is $30 billion.
3/25/22, 9:00 AM
I was just getting into Telegram, which is harder to censor and harder for propaganda platforms like that run by the military industrial complex and their allies in the spy agencies and the Democrats to game.y
"We need to stay engaged and hold his feet to the fire: You promised us free speech, now, and you must give it to us."
WTF???
You and I don't have a money involved in this. Elon Musk doesn't owe you and me a thing. If you are a TWTR shareholder, you can buy, sell, or hold. There is no public good in TWTR. It doesn't use the public airwaves. It doesn't have ongoing public subsidies. It is a subscription service that offers certain things and is currently run by semi-educated, brainy social misfits.
If we refuse to recognize that this is essentially a capital markets move to reprice assets that Elon believes are undervalued through the market in corporate control, we will head off into the underbrush of politics instead of focusing on the clarifying uplands of commercial transactions.
Don't be fooled into thinking this is something that it isn't.
Yeah, but. I think we've been tested on free speech. Half of us have been shut down and been made to have to listen to others tell us we're racist, and that that guy we see over there, who empirically is a guy, who's preferred pronouns are Them/Zir, considers himself a woman. Fine. I've been listening to a boatload of bizarre notions for years now. Yes, the earth is doomed, yes I know. But...
In other words we've been fed so much bizarre shit and have been told to shut up about it, I cannot imagine any greater amount of bizarre shit that I would demand be shut down. I wouldn't. Nothing more can surprise me.
I don't want the craziness shut down. I do want the antidote to craziness be allowed to be stated out loud. And that just might be the promise I see in Musk taking over Twitter. It may or may not work. But I'd love to see it tried.
The man transforms everything he touches. Question: if the board does not accept, would they be open to a shareholder lawsuit? Don’t they have a fiduciary responsibility?
"You don't know." How presumptuous and didactic. We're not first year law students. Step up your game and stop presuming what we do, and do not know.
This, combined with his ubiquitous Starlink network, will make him potentially the free speech king of the world.
Those that don't like it, in the us or anywhere else can go "shake their first at the sky".
Otoh, as Ann notes, what happens if his free speech talk is just a pose? And what happens after Elon's eventual death?
We wind up with a potential single point of failure. Our single point of control that can be used for good or evil.
I have no idea how to guard against that. Possibly widely distributed ownership with everyone in America having the same number of shares would work in theory but how do we get there? And if we could I'm not sure it would work anyway.
We live in interesting times.
John LGKTQ Henry
This is awesome!!!
Cool
Look for a mass exodus of woke technorati who do whatever the 2022 equivalent is of removing the "W" keys from the keyboards on their way out.
Elon should contract for them to lock the whole thing down for 72 hours before terms are made public and reopen with new management team.
It will be very hard for the board to refuse this offer. Their bankers and lawyers will strategize on moves to block the sale but if Musk is intent he will win. The directors will be sad to lose their hefty compensation but since they are paid mainly in stock this deal will be enormously lucrative for them.
Response from Twitter management to staff: “All is well! Carry on!”
Wish I had bought some. But I’ll settle for sitting here in the cheap seats and enjoying the popcorn.
Good times for Twitter shareholders. Expect to see a bidding war from some individual or group on the left. Twitter is part of the social media hegemony that would be near catastrophic for the left to lose. Directors will really earn their pay and there will be a number of lawsuits, some attempting to intimidate Musk into losing enthusiasm for buying Twitter and withdrawing his offer.
Bring the popcorn!
Free speech as defined by the left:
White left antifa terrorists are allowed to commit as much brown-shirted arson as they wish.
Jan 6th!!!!!!! walking thru doors held open by capitol police = you are gonna die.
"...and been made to have to listen to others tell us we're racist, and that that guy we see over there, who empirically is a guy, who's preferred pronouns are Them/Zir, considers himself a woman."
No one has made me listen to anything. As my mother always said, you can turn it off, which is what I have done.
Second post, this time on the Althouse comments and sense of “ownership” they reveal in her views of Twitter. Seems to agree with Musk that Twitter is a de facto national public platform for free speech. Makes sense if one considers that all the social media companies were built on public infrastructure and investment of U.S. taxpayers. It’s the primary argument that some use for treating these companies like public utilities subject to regulation. I’m not a fan of that approach after seeing the elite capture of energy company regulators. Better to have private company competition combined with loss of lawsuit protections (some, not all) to keep these platforms honest.
The Progs may take this personally and start burning their Teslas in protest.
More seriously? Elon better check his six.
And all the lefties on twitter are crying. Like they told us, if you don't like it, build your OWN twitter. GO ELON!!!
Think of the signal this sends to FaceBook and YouTube and their actions on restricting speech.
This is called a market force and I f'ing love it.
It will never be truly free speech, even 4chan /b/ is censored, and of course it can be completely appalling nonetheless, with real gore and so forth posted. I think the only thing they censor is child p_rn?
You would think that Twitter would still not become like 4chan /b/, but to be honest, some communities are not censored at all. The stuff that Black Twitter posts is absolutely appalling, some of the most vile, hateful, and racist stuff on the entire internet. And no one utters a peep about censoring them
Can Twitter go libertarian and still make money on ads from woke companies? Will the left keep using Twitter when deplorables get a free pass?
Musk is reputed to live on-site and spend twenty hours per day, every week, on whatever business captures his attention. Starship, Tesla, whatever.
Even Musk is limited by the number of hours per day.
Do we now infer the Mars mission is -- in Musk's mind, at least -- a done deal? A problem solved, to be handed off to underlings to polish up the last few minor details? Why would a guy who confesses to being obsessed with Mars all his life now turn his focus to a communications issue?
OR, is the Twitter technology of some use to potential Martian colonists maintaining contact with Earth? I may need to go read that Andy Weir novel again...
Critter,
Musk has said he will not engage in a bidding war. This is is best and final offer. He also said that that if it is not accepted, he will likely sell his 10% interest. He worded it a bit more coyly but the meaning was clear.
John LGKTQ Henry
A commenter ar ZeroHedge suggests that Musk is buying Twitter to provide content for Starlink.
Not in that comment but an idea that occurs to me is that Twitter could become a subscription service at some very nominal rate. Say $1/month. This would do away with the anonymous nature of Twitter. My first thought is that would be a good thing but it also has some serious downsides.
In any event, say he starts charging a fee but bundles free Twitter accounts with Starlink. Say 10 Twitter accounts (for the whole family) with each Starlink account. That would probably boost Starlink sales.
John LGKTQ Henry
You people will love it until Musk uses Twitter to help Ukraine and disrupt Putin's Stalinist Union.
Have you people forget your loyalty to Mother Russia? This is the War Criminals whom distribute communication platform to Ukrainia Nazis. He also threatened personal violence against Great Strong Leader.
98 percent of Twitter’s value comes not from anything intrinsic to the product itself but from the fact that the world’s journalists and cultural figures have chosen it as their platform to communicate. Save for that the barriers to compete against it are quite low; kids in Silicon Valley could do the coding in their sleep. What is to prevent all the cool kids, led by a left-wing Silicon Valley billionaire, from declaring they’re now going to eat lunch at a different place? Twitter’s stock price would plunge, never to recover, because it was a no-growth enterprise even before Musk took it over and would continue to be so forever.
Historians will call this the first Information Cold War:
1970s: Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, and a lot of pompous media preaching about the 1st Amendment. "I am the truth." Media preaching lasted 10+ years.
1998: Drudge Report rises with NBC News quashing the Lewinsky stained blue dress story, and this leak shook old media to its foundations.
2016: Trump. Twitter. Impulses. Yes. No. Did so. Did not. I'm telling mommy. Oligarchs awake. [At this point Rupert Murdoch, Bezos, Bill Gates, etc. had or were building message-oriented media units.]
2020: The Empire Strikes Back and colludes to bring back Old Timey hegemonic central control and install a compliant puppet government.
2022: Musk joins the oligarch feudal system by going for the Empire's jugular with Twitter.
The fighting will continue until we reach the trench warfare / stalemate / détente phase of the war. If Musk buys it all that phase could start this year. Showcase Andy Ngo? Showcase Jordan Peterson? Showcase The Donald himself?!?
The idea of Musk as free speech savior is all wrong. That works when we’re under mom and dad’s care.
I don't "love" free speech any more than I "love" my 10mm socket wrench. They're both indispensable tools that you really miss badly when they disappear. In many cases, you can't complete or even start a job until you either find the missing one or go out and get another. It's a lot harder, more time consuming, and more expensive to go out and get a replacement than it is to take care of the one you've already got.
"The man transforms everything he touches."
His bandwidth is amazing.
Ladies and gentlemen, the most interesting man in the world...
The last time I checked, the Board of Directors had a responsibility to do the right thing for shareholders.
If they reject the offer, could they be sued for the equivalence of malpractice?
"It will be very hard for the board to refuse this offer. Their bankers and lawyers will strategize on moves to block the sale but if Musk is intent he will win."
I expect the effective resistance to come from Biden's administration; the DOJ, FCC and the like. I expect Musk to lose that fight. The left will consider this an existential threat. (I don't think it is, but they can't seem to stand that somebody, somewhere, is saying things they disagree with.)
Popcorn indeed.
"You can't know that you will continue in your love for free speech. You may love it in the abstract, but you might fall out of love if you really see it in practice." It is hard for me to know what you're talking about. Because the median liberal is currently a closet (or open) fascist, does that mean I would be too if I had the chance? Or Elon Musk? Why?
Wonder how Musk sees this as a fit with Neuralink. Now THAT would be truly unfettered Twitter.
We might not get to free speech.
But we might get to something where the level of speech allowed isn't dependent on your political views.
I think Elon could deliver that.
"A commenter ar ZeroHedge suggests that Musk is buying Twitter to provide content for Starlink."
What? Content for Starlink is already the entire internet. Including Twitter.
You can't know that you will continue in your love for free speech. You may love it in the abstract, but you might fall out of love if you really see it in practice.
I love free speech in the abstract, just as I love the right to my own life in the abstract.
Stripping away all of the overburden, the just as the right to life is a personal property right — I am entitled to the ownership of my own life — free speech is also a property right: I am entitled to the ownership of my mind.
The censors out there are tyrants in training, determined to allow my ownership of my mind only to the extent they approve.
There is nothing abstract about that.
Now, if Twitter was to practice cruel neutrality in its censhorship decisions (If Trump isn't allowed on Twitter, then no presidents or ex-presidents are; if trans-skeptical comments aren't allowed, then no trans comments are) that might be a different matter. Instead of that, though, Twitter has been putting an anvil on one side of the scale.
"You can't know that you will continue in your love for free speech. You may love it in the abstract, but you might fall out of love if you really see it in practice."
I suppose you speak from experience?
Twitter stock trending down today so market skeptical.
The best part of his offer is, if he's rejected he will sell everything he has.
The stock will crash short-term at least.
I'm not certain, but if he's the one selling, I wonder if he can short the stock at the same time?
That would be hilarious.
He could burn it down and make tons of money at the same time : )
Very curious as to what Musk sees as the extraordinary potential of Twitter that he - and only he, I presume - will unlock.
"If they reject the offer, could they be sued for the equivalence of malpractice?"
Hmmmm... that does seem like possibly the most optimal outcome. The stock crashes and management is sued for what little they have left. Yeah, I think I like that.
John Henry, It is standard form in making an unsolicited bid to not negotiate against yourself by indicating that you may bid higher. Musk is following form but it means nothing about his future decisions on going higher in response to another bid.
You can't know that you will continue in your love for free speech. You may love it in the abstract, but you might fall out of love if you really see it in practice.
Its a valid point to bring up. Full free speech (no controls) allows for some truly reprehensible ideas to enter the marketplace. Without a civil social standards in place to control the darker aspects involved it could be a disaster.
Insert controls of any sorts and it's no longer free speech. Twitter is full of 140 character left morons and extremist idiots, but adding 140 character right morons to the mix doesn't do much to help. Better that Musk buy the NYT and WaPo and clean out the stables. Even better would be to replace the current education system and phase out the stupidity so evident on Twitter.
The present internet structure does a pretty good job of allowing me access to all ideas out there. Let's hope that it holds.
Musk is buying Free Speech?
“If they reject the offer, could they be sued for the equivalence of malpractice?"
I think that it is Breach of a Fiduciary Duty.
I now read that Twitters board is considering a poison pill strategy to thwart Musk. A dilutive measure that will create chaos/opportunity for investors and likely dim institutional interest. Will be fun to follow.
You can't know that you will continue in your love for free speech. You may love it in the abstract, but you might fall out of love if you really see it in practice.
Its a valid point to bring up. Full free speech (no controls) allows for some truly reprehensible ideas to enter the marketplace. Without a civil social standards in place to control the darker aspects involved it could be a disaster.
Insert controls of any sorts and it's no longer free speech. Twitter is full of 140 character left morons and extremist idiots, but adding 140 character right morons to the mix doesn't do much to help. Better that Musk buy the NYT and WaPo and clean out the stables. Even better would be to replace the current education system and phase out the stupidity so evident on Twitter.
The present internet structure does a pretty good job of allowing me access to all ideas out there. Let's hope that it holds.
Gravel,
On Reddit r/Machinists, there was recently a discussion about what folks keep in the "secret compartment" every Bridgeport mill has.
One guy claims that his contains everybody else's missing 10mm sockets.
Just thought you might want to know...
Father's board can argue (to the shareholders) for or against a Tender offer, but they can't stop the Tender offer from being made by Musk directly to the shareholders.
Nobody wants oughtought to sue them for making legitimate business arguments about it. Dissembling about the state of the company and its prospects, though, would be different.
DOJ and SEC have other levers to pull if politics (ha!) becomes an issue.
According to the libertarian theory they will accept the offer.
Free market. Profit motive.
If they refuse, then it will show that capitalism is NOT about "making money" or "Maximizing shareholder wealth" but personal power.
At least the Left is intelligent. they want big corporations to push Leftism. If they do, then they're Ok. If not, they are greedy bastards that need to be regulated.
The Right is just plain dumb. They just love big corporations. "Let the free market work". Even when the big corporations are tools of the Left.
"You can't know that you will continue in your love for free speech. You may love it in the abstract, but you might fall out of love if you really see it in practice."
History did not begin with the appearance of social media. I have spent a very big part of my life looking at free speech in practice. I know it is messy and much of what I am likely to hear isn't going to be to my taste. That's the way it's supposed to work. The First Amendment doesn't make exceptions for "stuff I don't like".
"I now read that Twitters board is considering a poison pill strategy to thwart Musk."
Maybe that was the plan all along, for Musk to get Twitter to self-destruct, just for the shits and giggles.
"If they refuse, then it will show that capitalism is NOT about "making money" or "Maximizing shareholder wealth" but personal power."
No it won't. It will prove that these particular share holders value ideological purity over profit. They will be ignoring capitalism, not following it.
Twitter last summer was ranging $60-70+. Board will be looking for price around there. Market seems to think he is more likely to bail.
We stand a lot better chance with a maverick like Musk "protecting" free speech than with the left wing absolutists now who don't even understand the concept.
I don't see any way that Musk is not going to be successful after the usual rear guard action.
I think this whole drama is wonderful. Hell, if Bezos can own the Post why shouldn't Musk own Twitter?
"...considering a poison pill..." I would think that implementing a poison pill now is too late: it's not part of some strategic positioning or reconfiguring of the firm, it's just a tactical move aimed at thwarting a bidder. It will invite litigation by shareholders (one of whom is Elon Musk) who will argue that the move does not maximize and preserve the value of the enterprise (which belongs to them; not the board), it is instead a way to burn down the business to fend off suitors and protect the board's very comfortable situation.
Pass the popcorn.
Gravel,
In 1957 my dad got me one of those 150 piece tool sets from sears.
A lot of it has been lost over the years but I still have all the drivers and most of the sockets. No metrics, though. Also almost all the combos from 1/4 to 7/8ths.
I still use them professionally.
I've been in a longer relationship with them than anyone/anything else.
I really do "love" my Craftsman tools.
In the 90s they went to crap for a while. Since they left sears they seem to be coming back.
Howard said...
Musk is buying Free Speech?
Fuck, man. How does a brain that spits that one out even function at all? Seriously.
Rc ocean,
I don't think I've seen it expressed as "maximizing shareholder wealth" before.
I've always seen the role of company boards and management as being about "maximizing shareholder value"
That is often monetary but not always. Some shareholders may want to maximize other values. Save the planet, global whatsit, govt influence (bezos/WaPo), free speech (Musk)
Not a thing wrong with that as long as shareholders are told up front what values are being maximized. If you don't like it, don't buy the shares.
John LGKTQ Henry
Still won't sign up, but the predictably hilarious response from the left is entertainment enough.
Pissing off all the right people? More, please.
Owen
Never too late for a poison pill but a good board would have one already on the shelf. Clearly Tis is early stages with big investors (al Waleed) weighing in that the price is too low. Goldman will present an analysis likely backing that up. Musk could initiate a proxy fight with his own slate of board members. The board is obligated to give due consideration to his offer but they don’t have to take it. If they decline it will be Musk who will have to take the next step.
The issue isn't so much free speech as it is information control.
@ Professora et al : here are some thoughts on the technology aspects of Twitter by CTH - Sundance
What Elon Musk appears to be doing is perhaps the biggest story that few understand.
! edumacate to me!
“I’m going to leave Twitter if Elon Musk takes over"
LOL, employees think that's a threat. To Elon, it sounds like a business plan.
Michael @ 5:31: "...weighing in that the price is too low..." Going to be interesting. It used to be that an all-cash offer at 50% over market would pretty well finesse any kind of auction --stuff their mouths with gold!-- but maybe things are different today, at least for new-era enterprises where value inheres in intangibles (network effects, user sentiment) that can shift in a great hurry. So, sure, let Goldman put in a very expensive opinion. It should benefit other companies in the same and similar lines of business.
If they do drive Elon away, I have to think the stock will take a beating.
I'm not at all a 'free speech absolutist' but I was v. much enjoying seeing certain parties' heads figuratively explode on Twitter this morning.
A blessed and fruitful Triduum to those of you who keep it.
Even if someone other than Musk ends up owning Twitter, the high price they will have to pay will mean that the new owner will want to cut costs and grow the user base. Appealing to only half of the potential user base by censoring their views will be seen as costing the new owners a lot of money. And cutting costs by firing people who sabotage the drive to expand the user base is a fine way to reduce costs.
Post a Comment