The Tussle between Elon Musk and Twitter-Things to Know
If you are looking for some inspiration, consider this quote- to succeed, you need to operate on the physics approach to analytics. Start boiling down the things to initial principles belonging to fundamental truths in the specific area. And then you can reason up from thereon.
Don’t worry as this one is not made up, it’s totally authentic. In fact, it is more practical than you can imagine. And one may have no reason to doubt the norm. It is from a man who privatized spaceships and introduced electronic cars to humanity-Elon Musk.
Elon Musk never ceases to amaze us. His latest tussle for Twitter is in the news all over. But what actually the scenario is? Why is he looking to buy Twitter? Let’s jump into the details and get to know all we can.
How did it start?
Elon Musk has the power, potential and mindset to make big changes in this world. To that end, he wants to change the social giant platform. But why you may ask?
Musk is a regular user of Twitter and holds its share as well. However, he is one of the most prominent critics of Twitter as well. Regularly tweeting, he recently polled his followers asking whether Twitter is actually protecting their freedom of speech or not? 70% of users accounting for 2 million answered ‘No’.
In a follow-up tweet, we see the billionaire tweet ‘Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?’ Those who follow Musk closely knew that something big is coming up.
And it did. Soon after, he made a big offer to own the whole of Twitter. This was in an effort to make Twitter more private so that the goal of free speech can eventually be accomplished.
Why does freedom of speech matter?
As per the US Constitution’s First Amendment layer, freedom of speech applies to all including government censoring speeches. However, this doesn’t apply to social media companies including Twitter. Twitter has set its own rules about things being allowed and not allowed on the website.
Musk addressed on Twitter itself that he wants to enhance Twitter with new features. He also made a promise that the algorithms of the service will be turned into open-source that will reduce spam and make it an only-human platform.
Response of Twitter owners’ authorities
Earlier, the offer by Elon was to be turned down straightaway. But then came the card-play by the great Elon and he offered some financial stability deals. The board started to take the deal more seriously after knowing how the finance would be handled. To come to an equilibrium, the board of directors decided to operate on a so-called ‘poison pill’ strategy. This is a defensive act where Elon may find it tough to buy the company and the board can accept another offer, in case any comes.
The co-founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey addressed his concerns in a tweet stating ‘as a public company, Twitter has always been ‘for sale.’ that’s the real issue.’ The co-founder believes that it is not a matter of who is owning twitter or running it. If anyone can, he should take it back from Wall Street which will be the ideal step.
But things became more interesting when Dorsey showed his trust in Elon. He tweeted ‘Solving for the problem of it being a company, however, Elon is the singular solution I trust, I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”
How will the payment be made by Elon Musk?
Paying the whole sum is not a big deal for one of the richest people in the world with a net worth of more than $250 billion. He can technically afford it. Musk addressed that he had already secured around $25.5 billion as debt financing. This comes from Morgan Stanley as well as certain other financial entities. Musk addressed that he will be giving around $21 billion as the equity financing for owning Twitter as a whole.
What is the current status of the deal?
As of now, the deal is not approved. The shareholders are holding the ball in their court and many believe that Musk might back out or rethink the dogmas. However, when Musk will terminate the deal he will have to pay $1 billion which is the termination fee as per the policies in the agreement made. So it’s a two-way scenario and there are shortcomings on both sides for Elon.
Musk also addressed the banks that he may take the offer back and will have a new CEO who will take over the social company. The new CEO will replace the current CEO, Parag Agrawal. Agrawal has been in the shoes for 5 months since Dorsey departed. The newly appointed CEO will handle the operations until the sale is completely finalized.
In an earlier tweet, Parag said ‘I took this job to change Twitter for the better, course-correct where we need to, and strengthen the service. Proud of our people who continue to do the work with focus and urgency despite the noise.”
Summing it up
While we cannot guarantee that Elon Musk will own Twitter, we can rest assured that something surprising is coming up. We cannot expect anything less from the richest billionaire who has made his net worth tenfold just in the last two years. For regular Twitter users, a new mind behind the operations will mean that better functionality and more freedom of talking are on the menu. Elon Musk has been known to work in the interest of the public and the future of Twitter might be more secured in his hands.
Summing it up, we shall leave you with the list of changes that Elon Musk is planning to make once he owns Twitter:
- He will make Twitter better equipped to combat certain levels of cryptocurrency scams
- Content moderation will be tweaked for better freedom of speech
- An edit button to change the content of the tweet may finally come into existence
- An open-source twitter algorithm might be introduced
Author: abhishek tuteja
Content writer with sky in eyes and nature in heart, living life learning each lesson per day.
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1 comment
Quite intuitive way of telling things