[psmith2.0]

**These People All Deserve Each Other News**

Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 billion



$43M, with an "m", would be ridiculous, IMO. But $43 billion? For Twitter?!

Whackjobs, everyone involved.

[chucker]

In terms of technological complexity, yes. In terms of value, well. It has close to a quarter billion daily average users. Kinda lucrative to serve ads to those. If you break it down like that, each user is worth just $198.

Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19B, which seemed like a lot but was clearly a smart move.

[kscherer]

Elon Musk has a tendency to make things work.

The success of his businesses, his net worth, and his management style are proof that he knows what he's doing, even if he's a bit … off.

[chucker]

Eat the rich.

[PB PM]

Originally Posted by kscherer Elon Musk has a tendency to make things work. The success of his businesses, his net worth, and his management style are proof that he knows what he's doing, even if he's a bit … off.

A bit?

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 **These People All Deserve Each Other News** Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 billion $43M, with an "m", would be ridiculous, IMO. But $43 billion? For Twitter?! Whackjobs, everyone involved.

And that's all I can say on the matter.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by Ryan And that's all I can say on the matter.

Just gonna leave this here.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/ar...oison-pill-now

Lawyer: The pill will be structured to let other shareholders buy a large amount of stock at a discount to dilute Musk’s stake. Twitter: How much stock? Lawyer: It doesn’t really matter, but a lot, enough to swamp Musk. Typically the exercise price would be like $100 to $200, and you’d get twice as much stock, like, $200 to $400 worth. Twitter: We are defending against Elon Musk here and ordinary tactics are not enough. We need to harness the power of the number 420. Lawyer: Okay then $420 worth of stock, whatever.

[kscherer]

I wonder if this is a strategic move on Elon Musk's part. Twitter's going to devalue their stock and saturate the market with it to keep from getting taken over?

If you own it, this would be a good time to sell off Twitter, methinks.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by kscherer I wonder if this is a strategic move on Elon Musk's part. Twitter's going to devalue their stock and saturate the market with it to keep from getting taken over? If you own it, this would be a good time to sell off Twitter, methinks.

I would just like Elon to fuck right off but it's not up to me.

[turtle]

So it is sounding more and more like Musk is going to buy Twitter for the cash offer. Article after article this morning make it look real. We will soon know for sure I'm guessing.

[Ryan]

fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuuuuu

Trying to buy a house in the middle of his shenanigans and I would very much like him to go away.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by Ryan fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuuuuu Trying to buy a house in the middle of his shenanigans and I would very much like him to go away.

Mind if I ask why you want him to go away? I'm pretty sure I read you work for Twitter but I don't understand why you would care in the end because your job likely wouldn't change. Heck, you might even make more money in the end since making shareholders happy would no longer be a concern.

[Ryan]

Some of my concerns are as an employee. Musk's other companies pay far less than Twitter, have far worse work-life balance, don't allow remote work and a host of other policies that are far less generous than Twitter's. If we end up with an equity comp plan anything like Tesla or SpaceX, I'll be looking at a 50% pay cut. Which is to say I'll leave for another company that pays what I make now—Twitter already pays below market compared to our peer companies and I'll probably get a nice raise when I jump ship.

Others are as someone who has serious concerns over his ownership of the platform. This creates another Zuckerberg-like situation where one person has total control for life. I don't think that's a good thing.

He also clearly has zero understanding of what it takes to operate this product at global scale. Content moderation is a hell of a lot more complicated than "just allow free speech". His interview at TED last week made clear that his thoughts on the subject are naive at best.

He's also someone who has no respect for free speech. Tesla leaned on the Chinese government to get posts critical of the company removed from Chinese social media. Will he demand the same of Twitter? He once swatted a Tesla employee who whistleblew to the feds. Will he do the same to us?

[turtle]

I can see how those would be concerning for you. I don't use Twitter so I personally don't care what happens to it in the least.

While I don't agree with all your points, I do see how they would be concerning to you. Though it sounds like you will end up moving to a better pay in the end no matter how this turns out so that isn't likely a bad thing.

Per Engadget, it has happened! PRNewswire Version

Twitter has accepted Elon Musk's buyout offer. Musk is purchasing the social media giant for $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion. Musk is taking the company private, as expected.

[kscherer]

I was just going to post that. It's a done deal, now. So, pack your bags, Ryan.

[Ryan]

Already looking for a life boat.

[psmith2.0]

If I had $44B to blow on something, it sure as shit wouldn't be Twitter, ffs. I can think of about 792,000 other things I'd throw in my basket first.

[Matsu]

Crazy rich megalomaniac takes public company private... probably not a good thing. Personally, I never gave a warm shat about twitter anyway, but I do care about how platforms traffic in information and the consequences that has for societal understanding of issues. We've seen how social media can supercharge disinformation even where legit sources congregate in the same platforms as less well schooled and perhaps less honest brokers.

I always thought it was weird how government and public institutions interacted with social media platforms anyway. The need, real and perceived, to reach out to constituencies over social media platforms seemed fraught with issues - in ways that differed in comparison to the mechanisms utilized for communicating through "the press" and TV/Radio.

It has users (and their data), and content publishers/posters (and their data). I don't know enough about valuing these things (clearly) but my guess is that the value comes from curating the experience in a way that attracts users. Too little restriction or too much would both conceivably effect its capacity to attract users in different ways, but we'll see. I usually take a pass on "Elon says blah blah whatever about xyz..." type news stories. He's not terribly interesting to me, but what he thinks about truth and accuracy of information and freedom of speech are suddenly relevant. hmmm...

[turtle]

I don't know, few people complained when Dell was going private again. It is public again last I saw, but it wasn't a big deal. It just means changes can happen without shareholders suing.

Really, this seems to boil down to politics which is really funny. Some are posting how they are leaving since Musk is buying, Ryan is looking to quit, Trump won't come back because Truth....

What ever happened to it being a platform to live post about the sandwich you just ate or how good your dump was (looking at you Drew)?

I'm still not planning to come back because my information is what is being sold to the highest bidder. I do still have an account on there, my former username for that matter. However I haven't logged in for a very long time and always through obfuscating means when I do now.

[kieran]

My biggest concern is the rolling back of content moderation that is feared with Elon owning Twitter.

He has made many statements of "free speech is the bedrock" but that shit frightens me.

Free speech is something that should always be protected from the government, but businesses have a duty to protect their users and moderate speech. Just a little worrisome based on his past comments.

I'll still use Twitter until it gets unusable for me.

[turtle]

I agree with a level of moderation for sure. I don't want Twitter being 4chan for tweens. Realistically though, if it were to go down that path it would die on the Vine.

Really though, people would stop using it. I think there is a strong balance of free speech and content moderation. The problem is there are tons of gray areas and what is green to me might be red to someone else. Not everyone is going to be happy with ANY moderation. The reality is, the issue/concern about being moderated will work itself out through attrition if nothing else.

What I'm most interested in is what becomes the money maker for the platform. Clearly the users are still the product, but does that change and if so how?

Stepping back from it, it is still wild that one guy decided he wanted to buy it, was told no. Then those same people who said no now say yes. What changed their minds? Wasn't there this lingering question of how will Twitter become really profitable anyway? From a business perspective it seems really odd.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by turtle Stepping back from it, it is still wild that one guy decided he wanted to buy it, was told no. Then those same people who said no now say yes. What changed their minds?

1) worse offers from others looking to buy
2) pressure on the board, given that Elon's offer was significantly above share price; if they don't agree to it, they might even face a lawsuit from shareholders

[Brad]

I hope you all don't mind that I split this off from "The Daily News Thread". It's something that I suspect will probably be discussed for a while and will be easier to follow this way.

[kscherer]

Seems like the right move to me.

[Ryan]

I think he is going to be in for a rough learning curve.

[turtle]

Oh, I'm sure he will be in for a long bumpy ride on this one. The international spread and such being a factor. Of course, going private means he can just drop international cares altogether! He can do what he wants, AND get away with it.

At least until there is nothing left to "get away with".

[drewprops]

Please take a moment to help me with an experiment.

People on social media platforms, toxic are your feeds right now?

Mine are very, very tame at present.

Let's come back here in 12 months to see if anything has changed.


...

[PB PM]

Kind of feel meh about the thing, having dropped twitter and FB years ago. I'm kind of surprised the board is going for this, given that they were very resistant last week.

To answer drewprops question:

Somewhat toxic, but not as bad as the last two years, that's the main reason I just don't use social media much now.

[Frank777]

Originally Posted by drewprops People on social media platforms, toxic are your feeds right now? Mine are very, very tame at present.

What the..?

What?

Social Media. Pandemic. Inflation. Crime. Election Cycle. Literal war in Europe. Potential war in half-dozen other places.

Who are you connected to on social media? Monks?

[drewprops]

No monastery, just friends of different stripes who are not currently at loggerheads.

My conservative friends have not been posting much... until today.

I have seen 3 joyous, revel-filled posts by arch-conservatives.

We are talking "dancing in the streets" level celebrations,
with likes and loves by the friends who are politically aligned with them.

However, a friend who is an arch-liberal suggested that there could be issues facing Elon, including:

• GDPR laws in Europe that could affect the way the platform behaves.
  
• A dearth of liquid cash, meaning tangibles may have to be placed on the table.
  
• Annual interest on the debt he's using to purchase the platform.

...