This week, the world's richest man, Musk, did another earth-shattering event, not only making the business community tremble, but also setting off a big fight among foreign netizens. After the electric car got tired of playing and ran to play the rockets, Musk, who is always doing things, announced that I want to buy Twitter in full and liberate free speech!
This matter can be described as a twist and turn, more than the movie. Musk quietly bought a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter last week.
After the acquisition, Musk, a severe Internet addict, proudly declared on his Twitter account that he had become the largest shareholder of Twitter.
Funny, after his passionate announcement, the media conducted a fact-finding and found that he was actually bragging, because Pioneer Group had acquired 10.3% of Twitter's shares, which had already surpassed him, and he was not the largest shareholder.
But in any case, Musk, who plays cars, "cross-border" intervenes in social networks, which proves that the field of science and technology is changing dramatically, and netizens can't help but look forward to the next plot.
People say that the new official has three fires in office, and Musk's hand that has just spent the money is itchy. He immediately proposed a series of reform plans for Twitter to show his majority shareholder status.
Musk launched a poll to ask netizens if they want Twitter to add an "edit" function that can be corrected after typos or content errors. Until then, if you posted something wrong on the push, you could only delete the retransmission, so the edit button has always been a hot topic.
Some netizens suggested that the edit button will only appear after a short period of time after posting, and the edited content will be marked. Musk praised: "Sounds reasonable! ”。 It can be said that the sense of ownership is very strong, and he does not regard himself as an outsider.
Musk retweets his own meme
Musk's voting post was forwarded by the current Twitter CEO, and reminded everyone that this vote is very serious, and I hope that everyone will answer truthfully. It also seems to prove that Musk has been recognized by Twitter executives and has entered management.
Before that, former CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey had made it clear that he "probably would never" launch an editing feature. That sparked speculation about why Dorsey left.
Did he go away at odds with Musk? Did Musk squeeze Out Dorsey? (In 2020, Dorsey suffered a recall storm, and Musk supported Dorsey, which was also obviously related to Twitter at this time)
Dorsey, who was interviewed this week, said no— "I didn't get kicked out by Musk, I just left." ”
The strong entry of Musk's funds allowed Twitter to naturally give him a seat on the board, and Musk gladly accepted Twitter's offer at first, but soon changed his mind.
The reason is that Twitter rules that board members can only own a maximum of 15% of the company's shares. This limits Musk's play, because he wants not only a stake in Twitter, but also the supreme voice of Twitter.
Musk heard that he was going to be restricted, refused a board seat, and announced that he would not passively participate in the company's affairs. The board of directors does not want to participate in anything. Netizens and the business community are blinded, spend money and do not want seats, what is he going to do???
A few days later, Musk blew everyone out like a gunpowder fishpowder:
I, Musk, 50, plan to buy Twitter in full.
That's right, just this week, Musk offered to buy the entire Twitter company for $43 billion! ($54.2 per share). All-cash players, ready to pay money, are bound to make Twitter into a "Ma Jiajun".
Leaving aside the fact that $43 billion can be pulled out at will, how shocking it seems to ordinary people, for Twitter, Musk is willing to buy them with a high price of $37 billion, which is also called trench inhumanity.
However, what scares Twitter is not Musk's money, but Musk's brain circuitry. In the interview, Musk said with a slight disdain that he did not want to make money from Twitter's shares, and that he bought Twitter not for money, but to change the world...
A big game of chess, this is the surface.
If the acquisition succeeds, Twitter will be Musk's second-largest company
Musk said he was very unhappy with Twitter's current environment, especially his efforts to suppress conservative voices in the United States and call Republicans, which he said was "destroying freedom of speech."
He tweeted against Twitter: "Given that Twitter was supposed to act like a public square for everyone to speak freely, Twitter now doesn't abide by the principles of free speech, fundamentally undermining democracy." ”
So, in Musk's view, in order to fulfill his good wish that people from different positions can speak at will, he must make Twitter "private" (become his personal business).
"Freedom of speech is when people you don't like are allowed to say things you don't," he said, and thought it was irrational for Twitter to "permanently ban" some users too easily.
This is actually to accuse liberal-leaning Twitter of suppressing conservative voices, and of course, it also includes the fact that Trump was banned by Twitter.
Musk is more confused in political tendencies, he is both the big financial backer of the Democratic Party and the gold lord of the Republican Party, and even supports Kanye as president, anyway, it changes every day, chaos and neutrality. But at this stage, he knows how to market himself, and he loves to please conservatives even more.
Sure enough, as soon as Musk's bold words came out, the conservatives were happy and rushed, carrying a big flag to cheer Musk up. Everyone said that Musk is all for Trump! Buy Twitter and no one will stand in the way of Trump's strong return!
Musk is noncommittal to this speculation. If it is true, spending 43 billion to pave the way for Trump is really the first star-chasing boy in the universe. Musk's "make Trump great again" quickly reached Trump's own ears.
But Trump, a 75-year-old internet celebrity, said he felt Twitter was boring now, so "even if Musk buys the company, I don't have any interest in returning to Twitter." But he affirmed Musk's contribution to increasing the voice of conservatives.
The funny thing is that Trump's former adviser "debunked" the rumors: Trump had broken his heart in order to return to social networks, so now he just found a step for himself, if there is really a chance to return to Twitter, he will not give up.
In any case, whether Trump comes back or not, Musk has already formulated a set of reform strategies for Twitter. He asked Twitter to reduce its review and raise the criteria for banning and deleting posts.
He also intends to make an algorithm that can tell if the distribution of each tweet is upscaled or downgraded by Twitter, in case they "operate behind the scenes" and deliberately hide some people's tweets.
Please go back to Trump, liberate conservative voices, and strip away the working mechanism of Twitter, Musk really frightened Twitter this time.
Some have slammed his views on free speech and algorithmic openness as too naïve and simple, especially when it comes to algorithms, and as the boss of a tech company, he should be very aware of how complex the task of data disclosure can be.
Perhaps this just proves that Musk made these overly wild demands, not because of ignorance, but because he was paying attention to it, and by the way, he gave himself a wave of iron fans who thought he was very real and dared to say. From this point of view, his and Trump's marketing strategy is really quite similar.
Now, Twitter's board of directors has exploded, and they have announced that they would rather swallow the "poison pill" than sell it to Musk.
"Poison pill" is a takeover term, a pervasive defensive tactic for potential hostile takeovers. When the poison pill is triggered, the company allows existing shareholders to purchase additional shares at a discounted price, thereby inflating the acquirer's costs and diluting the interests of the adversary.
Although this approach can protect minority shareholders and prevent management from transferring control, there are also some risks to the company itself. In any case, the attitude on Twitter's side is obvious, vowing to die.
Meanwhile, sources say the Justice Department is also conducting an investigation into Musk's business activities. Musk seems to have anticipated the reaction of Twitter's board.
He has become a voting maniac in the past few days, asking everyone on the push "should the board decide whether I can have an acquisition company", "you do not support Musk to buy Twitter", trying to show his "people's will" with an overwhelming vote of approval.
A venture capital company founder supported Musk, saying: "If Musk can't successfully acquire Twitter this time, it must be because of the conspiracy and corruption behind it!" We'll find out who did the good deeds. ”
This post was enthusiastically liked by Musk, who is online 24 hours a day.
Musk's brain circuitry and "madness" are really beyond the reach of ordinary people. While busy acquiring Twitter, he is also dealing with 10 major events at the same time, including talking about Tesla's new factory, dealing with regulators, revitalizing Tesla stock, building cars, building rockets, building children, dating beautiful women, and surfing the Internet. A true master of time management.
Ten years ago, people thought he was a proper lunatic, and he couldn't succeed. Now he's the world's richest man, trying to buy the world's largest social networking site like a cabbage.
This puzzled and surprised the people, and also made the American media issue an exclamation that "his madness is a visionary madness".
It's hard to tell if Musk is joking or seriously doing something, and only when the results are in front of us can we understand what Musk is doing.
Twitter's takeover battle is destined to be a rollercoaster experience, and we haven't even played the most exciting part yet...