Yesterday, we talked about Musk's hostile takeover of Twitter, and Twitter's board of directors first hit back with the "poison pill plan", but hesitated to accept it.
I thought that the two sides would have to fight for a while, but I didn't expect the finale to come so quickly.
Just today, Twitter announced that its board of directors has unanimously approved and accepted Musk's acquisition.
The deal reached between the two parties is to sell Twitter to Musk for $54.2 per share, with a total transaction size of $44 billion.
At Musk's request, Twitter will also exit the stock market to become a privately held company.
From the announcement of the acquisition, to the completion of the acquisition, Musk only took 12 days,
The price he negotiated with the board of directors was also the price originally proposed, which shows that the negotiation is very easy.
U.S. media reported that Twitter's board initially rejected Musk's acquisition request because they did not believe Musk could come up with enough money.
But last week, Musk's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that he received $25.5 billion in loan commitments from multiple financial institutions, plus $21 billion in self-financing, proving that the money was plentiful.
As for the "poison pill plan", the board never seriously implemented it, but used it as a blackmail to negotiate a higher price.
Musk insisted that $54.2 per share was the final offer, saying it had spilled 54 percent of the share price than before investing in Twitter at the end of January.
To this day, this offer is also higher than the actual stock price, coupled with the fact that the stock market has been very turbulent this year, the board has to accept.
In this way, Twitter became Musk's bag,
The man, who has 80 million followers on Twitter, became the true king of Twitter.
Musk happily announced the news on Twitter, shouting "Yesss!!! ”。
Twitter's current leadership is still CEO Parag Agravar, but Musk can't wait to announce the reforms he will make.
He cut off a clip of the interview and said: "Free speech is the foundation of democracy, and Twitter is the public square of the digital age, where all the important topics about the future are discussed." ”
"By beefing up new features, opening up algorithms to boost trust, fighting water, and authenticating everyone, I'm making Twitter a better place." Twitter has a lot of potential, and I'm looking forward to unlocking it with the company and its users. ”
The new feature Musk said should include the addition of an edit button, short videos and live streams.
These features have been mentioned on Twitter, but they have not been made for several years, and product updates are slower than other social software.
Regarding open source algorithms, this is the first in social software.
Although Musk did not say what specific open source algorithm, from the perspective of "improving trust", it should refer to the rules according to which the post is displayed on the timeline.
This place is full of people, it is the place where the debate is loudest and most like a "public square", and a little change can affect the direction of public opinion.
If people know why certain posts get more attention and some can't, maybe there will be a lot less suspicion.
Cracking down on the water army is what all social platforms promise to do, as for "verifying the identity of everyone", it is not clear what he is going to do.
It may be to join the human-machine verification process, or it may be real-name authentication.
After the news of Musk's acquisition of Twitter broke, it quickly became a global trend on Twitter.
Netizens are divided into two camps, conservative support, liberal scolding, and a small group of people who eat melons and watch dramas.
Musk's fans are mostly conservatives, and they congratulated him in the comments section.
"Congratulations!"
"Will this be Twitter's new logo?"
Some people lament that the words Musk wrote 5 years ago now seem particularly inspirational.
Others celebrated the african-American victory:
"An African-American who owns the largest social media company on the planet, he made history."
(Note: Although Musk is white, he's from South Africa, so technically he's African-American.) ）
Netizens have made a lot of interesting memes to prove how strong Ma Bazong's "banknote ability" is...
But not everyone finds it interesting.
Liberal netizens are very angry, believing that Musk is using the name of "free speech" to open the door to hate speech and disinformation.
"I hope you don't turn the platform into a place to spread rumors, that's not 'free speech.'"
"Elon, freedom of speech and hate speech and harmful information are two different things."
"Believe me, racist remarks will reach a new level in the future."
Musk knows there are a lot of people who oppose him, and he tweeted that he hoped his critics who hated him the most would stay on Twitter because that's what free speech means.
But liberal netizens didn't want to play with him anymore and said they wanted to quit:
"I'm not sure if Musk had Twitter, I wouldn't be interested here."
"'If Musk buys Twitter and goes to Instagram to find me,' it's the new 'if Trump becomes president, I'll move to Canada.'"
In the debate, there is a man whose name cannot be hidden, that is, Trump.
Many people's first reaction to seeing Twitter being acquired by Musk was to ask him if Trump could come back.
Others have ridiculed that Musk spent $44 billion to make Trump happy...
Last year, after Trump's Twitter account was banned, Musk said meaningfully: "A lot of people are dissatisfied with the high-tech companies on the West Coast because they become the people who actually decide what free speech is." ”
This "many people" include Musk himself.
Now it seems that trump's ban has had a great impact on him, and the two people standing on the cusp of the storm have a sense of pity for each other. Since then, the idea of acquiring Twitter has been buried.
On Monday, Trump said on Fox News that even if Twitter put his account out, he wouldn't go back.
That's because he's bringing traffic to his social platform, Trust Social, and the company's stock price fell 13 percent after today's acquisition news came out.
Although Trump is not coming for the time being, Musk buying Twitter is already a major positive for the Republican Party.
Throughout the day, the Republican Party is filled with cheerfulness, celebrating that this liberal-dominated platform can finally be transformed.
Tennessee Republican Congressman Martha Blackburn excitedly tweeted several times:
"Today is a day of encouragement for free speech. I hope Elon Musk will change the tech giants' approach and stop censoring users because they have different opinions. ”
"It was fantastic to be a conservative on Twitter today."
"Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter terrifies the left because they don't want their right to censor conservatives to disappear."
Martha Blackburn even made a video celebrating this great day.
Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio shouted, "Freedom of speech is finally back." ”
In the interview with Fox, he also smiled uncontrollably and praised Musk's decision.
The House Republican issued three brief words: "Elon, Twitter, Freedom." ”
It's all in plain sight.
The Democrats were annoyed. Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Elizabeth Warren says what is happening right now is dangerous.
"This deal is dangerous for our democracy. Billionaires like Elon Musk can play by different rules and accumulate power for their own benefit. We need to tax the rich and hold them accountable with strict rules. ”
Democratic Congressman Chris Murphy of Connecticut said he was personally not interested in Musk, but he was terrified to see that billionaires could make such a big impact on the lives of ordinary people.
The incident also alarmed Biden, whose press secretary spoke on his behalf, saying the president had "long been talking about his concerns about the spread of misinformation on social media platforms."
Six advisers around Biden told the media that the White House was beginning to worry about Trump's return to Twitter, which could affect the 2024 election.
The Republicans also have news to reveal, telling the media that if the Republican Party wins back the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, it will launch an investigation into Twitter's long-term censorship of Republicans' remarks.
An acquisition case has stirred up American politics, and I don't know if this is in Musk's expectations.
Over the years, Musk has described himself as "half liberal, half conservative" and made it clear that he did not want to take sides.
In terms of political donations, he has donated both democrats and Republicans, and there is no obvious bias.
But musk made a lot of remarks that felt too conservative, such as "the epidemic lockdown is fascism", "transgender pronouns are terrible", and mocked Biden as a "humanoid wet sock", commenting on Sanders "I thought you died long ago".
This crazy and unobstructed look is really similar to Trump.
This has also made conservative netizens hope for Musk to become the president of the United States.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Constitution stipulates that the president must be born as a U.S. citizen, while Musk was born in South Africa.
However, the current situation is also enough for the Democratic Party.
I thought that banning Trump could stop for a while, but I didn't expect the platform to directly change the boss.
In this AMERICAN political arena, I am afraid that it will be lively again...
ref：
https://twitter.com/search?q=%22Elon%20Musk%22&src=trend_click&vertical=trends
https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/twitter-elon-musk-latest-news
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/25/musks-twitter-takeover-biden-officials-worry-trump-will-return-to-platform.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/liz-warren-says-elon-musk-twitter-buyout-dangerous-for-democracy-2022-4
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