On the afternoon of April 25, local time in the United States, Musk officially announced that he had reached an acquisition agreement with a US listed company and social media Twitter, with a total amount of $44 billion. The world's richest man with 83 million followers on Twitter will win one of the largest M&A levers in history to win the world-class social platform in english.
It took only 12 days from the formal filing of the M&A Twitter agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 14, to the launch of the "poison pill plan" on Twitter, and then to the merger agreement reached by the two sides on musk's initial bid for $54.2 US stocks.
The expected M&A and anti-M&A war did not start, but witnessed one of the largest leveraged mergers in history, and Twitter's board of directors ceded the 16-year-old social networking platform to the world's richest man.
Buying one of the most important social media in English, how will Musk take advantage of this media next? And achieve what Musk thinks is the business model? What kind of ambition does buying Twitter involve?
01
One of the largest leveraged mergers and acquisitions in history
On April 1, local time in the United States, the traditional Western April Fool's Day, Musk announced that he had acquired a 9.1% stake in Twitter, becoming the company's largest single shareholder.
Affected by the news, Twitter's stock price rose more than 30% in the first trading day, but it was never expected that becoming Twitter's largest shareholder was not Musk's ultimate goal.
On April 14, Musk's document to buy Twitter for $54.20 was officially exposed, and then on April 16, Twitter's board of directors passed the so-called "shareholder rights plan," commonly known as the "poison pill plan", in Twitter's shareholder rights plan, when a single shareholder holds more than 15% of the shares, other shareholders can buy new shares issued by Twitter at half the current price.
At the same time, Musk announced that he has received M&A funding guarantees from the world's top institutions, and has arranged for the acquisition of Twitter for $46.5 billion. In 2018, Tesla's most difficult time, Musk also found Apple CEO Cook, hoping that Apple can buy Tesla, and the amount of mergers and acquisitions is in the early $40 billion.
Time passed, in just 4 years or so, Tesla became a company with a market value of more than $1 trillion, and Musk became the world's richest man with assets of more than $300 billion. Buying a $40 billion public company with a market capitalization is a casual thing.
Musk achieved the highest level of financial freedom, the stage of corporate freedom. But the Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who claims to be retiring to Mars, buying Twitter is just the beginning.
On April 24, local time in the United States, Musk officially launched a plan to acquire Twitter, after the Twitter board passed the so-called "shareholder rights plan", at the same time, the media reported that there are large consortiums also interested in acquiring Twitter, just when the global media is waiting for a merger and acquisition and anti-merger war, I never expected that the Twitter board of directors so cheerfully agreed to musk's merger offer, the merger amount is musk's official announcement of 54.2 US dollars per share.
Musk's acquisition of Twitter went so smoothly! However, for Musk, the next step is to complete the acquisition of Twitter in the process.
The more important question is, what will be Musk's real intentions after buying Twitter?
02
Buying Twitter, musk contains what kind of ambition
Affected by Musk's formal acquisition of Twitter, the virtual currency market ushered in a sharp rise, after musk's platform Dogecoin news rose more than 30% in the short term, and the price of well-known virtual currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum also rose.
In addition to Facebook and Instagram, Twitter is the largest English-language social media company in Daily Life. Mastering social media is of greater significance to the world's richest man like Musk, who is good at running personal IP. Not long ago, Musk said that Tesla's market capitalization of $1 trillion, while the advertising spend is zero, which is the effect of Musk with more than 83 million Twitter followers, of course, more importantly, musk is doing to lead the industry forward.
Musk is also cleverly using his huge influence on Twitter, and trying to circumvent content regulation is also one of Musk's intentions. As for Musk's mention in the filing to the SEC, he believes that Twitter's potential is huge, and the existing model cannot continue to maintain prosperity and social responsibility, so the company must be privatized.
Buy Twitter, how will Musk use Twitter?
1. Change Twitter's current business model of relying on advertising, trying to implement the user payment model;
2. The combination of user payment model and content mechanism to promote virtual currency, Musk may launch his own digital currency;
3) Pushing for so-called free speech, including the possibility of unbanning former U.S. President Trump's Twitter account, Musk believes that even the worst critics can continue to use the platform and buy Twitter, Musk does not have to worry about being banned.
Most importantly, Musk will not use Twitter's social media attributes, combined with Musk's personal aura, in the pursuit of political power. During the Russo-Ukrainian War, Musk made several remarks on Twitter, including a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, claiming that all the nuclear bombs launched by Russia could be returned to Russia, and promoting his starlink products.
How to combine Twitter, whether Musk will gather his own strength, and this power will help him achieve his political power demands, for example, can run for the president of the United States (not from the United States, this election condition can not be changed), or the implementation of virtual currency, and the guarantee of this political power demand is Musk's military capabilities. From a certain point of view, Musk's company has extremely high military value:
2, Starlink can provide space communications, but also can become a space nuclear bomb protection network to prevent nuclear bomb attacks;
3, Boring Company can build underground tunnels, but also can build military fortresses;
4, Neuralink brain-computer interface can treat diseases, but also can control humans;
5, self-driving Tesla cars, in addition to liberating human drivers, but also through the background control can become a tool to kill.
Fans of American dramas may have all seen a movie - Resident Evil, in which Umbrella Company has its own underground secret virus research institute, its own artificial intelligence, its own satellite communication network and army, its own nuclear bomb (destroying Raccoon City, where the T virus broke out, and declaring it a nuclear power plant explosion) and so on.
Looking at Musk's companies and their capabilities, combined with musk's political demands and military fangs in the Russo-Ukrainian War, all of this is worth vigilance. Of course, I hope musk will not become Hitler, but can truly bring humanity to the space age.
However, precisely because of the development of the space age, it may be necessary to gather the resources of all mankind, including intelligence, funds, resources, and so on. Once Musk finds that he can't achieve the goal by relying on his own market-oriented means, will he think of other means? During the war and the Cold War, human progress in science and technology was the greatest, which is also quite sad, and human beings actually broke out the strongest state when trying to destroy themselves.
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