What will Twitter look like after being acquired by Musk for $44 billion?
No one expected that in just a few days, Musk would really buy Twitter.
On April 25, according to people familiar with the matter, Twitter is ready to accept Elon Musk’s bid of $54.20 per share. If nothing else, the world’s largest social media will be valued at about $44 billion. The "global spiritual leader" Musk is in his pocket, becoming another major industry of the latter outside the fields of electric vehicles, aerospace, and brain computers.
As the most influential entrepreneur on Odaily, we can infer from Musk's previous remarks what Twitter will look like under his rule. Can Twitter, which is closely connected with the encrypted world, turn Dogecoin, which was popularized by Musk, from a meme into a practical tool?
When the acquisition is in progress
The source of this super transaction worth over US$40 billion occurred less than two weeks ago.
On April 14, Musk provided an offer in a document submitted to the SEC: willing to buy Twitter at a price of $54.2 per share. The largest shareholder of Twitter not long ago said that Twitter needs to be transformed into a private company. This offer is the best and last offer he can give personally.
$54.2 means that Musk gave Twitter a valuation of over $43 billion, exceeding the current market value. The sudden good news was also reflected in the market, and Twitter rose sharply.
At the end of the quote, Musk also gave his reasons for taking Twitter private. He believes that the reason why he invested in Twitter was that he believed that it now had the potential to become a global platform for free speech, but when he invested in Twitter, he found that Twitter would neither prosper nor meet the needs of society. So he decided that Twitter needed to transform into a private company.
"Twitter has extraordinary potential, and I will unleash it," Musk wrote at the end.
Most people are still very interested in the change of ownership of Twitter. Musk’s own poll shows that 83.5% of the total votes of 2.86 million support Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
This transaction is easily reminiscent of the privatization of Tesla 4 years ago. The protagonists are the same, but the result is different. The privatization of Twitter is a foregone conclusion. Musk is bound to change this social platform with 200 million global monthly users. In addition to black-box algorithms, fraudulent accounts and other aspects that have been criticized conservatively, Musk can also contribute to Twitter. What did you bring?
Musk's ideal Twitter
Two years before announcing the acquisition of Twitter, Musk expressed his dissatisfaction with Twitter many times in public. It was Facebook that received the same treatment earlier, and Musk hated Facebook to the point of deleting Tesla and SpaceX Facebook accounts. Unlike his distaste for Facebook, Musk doesn't hate Facebook's Instagram, just because the latter retains its independence.
In addition to being disappointed with the independence of Twitter, Musk is also expressive about the unsatisfactory iteration of Twitter's product functions. Before issuing a tender offer to Twitter, he launched a vote on Twitter to support the addition of a button to modify the content. More than 4.4 million people participated in the vote and 3.2 million people supported it. This is not a new feature. Weibo, which is far across the ocean by touching Twitter, has already supported this feature in 2017.
Musk also complained that Twitter is losing more and more big Vs and stars. This isn't just a problem with the Twitter platform itself. At present, social platforms around the world are facing the loss of top users, and they are increasingly afraid to express their positions on public platforms. On the one hand, the generalization of trolls leads to poor user experience, and at the same time, the inaction of the platform has contributed to the trend of trolls rampant. Behind the screen, some users seem to think they can do whatever they want, causing bad money to drive out good money. On the other hand, the platform indulges opposing topics and creates a large number of fake users for the sake of short-term traffic data.
Faced with the existing problems of Twitter, Musk said that once the acquisition is successful, it will fight to the death with spam bots and verify whether it belongs to a real user. At the same time, Musk will also open source Twitter's algorithm, because it is very important for freedom of speech. Among the 2.03 million user votes, 70.4% of users think that today's Twitter is not free of speech. As Musk wrote in the acquisition offer, Twitter now has the potential to become a global platform for free speech, which is a social responsibility for a country.
Of course, the most important point is that Twitter may support Dogecoin tip payment in the future. The founder of Dogecoin once expressed the hope that Dogecoin will add practical functions, and mentioned the option of adding Dogecoin to Twitter’s tip payment, which Musk deeply agrees with.
After deciding to acquire Twitter, Musk registered three new companies with X Holdings as the parent company. One of the companies is the subject of absorbing and acquiring Twitter. Interestingly, in 2012, Musk considered creating a parent company to incorporate into his company, and Musk is also the holder of the X.com domain name. In an interview with TED, Musk believes that this may be very complicated, because Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company have different sources of shareholders, and Tesla is still a public company.
However, this is obviously not a problem for Musk, who has super executive power. Perhaps in the near future, we can see the birth of a giant company that owns Twitter, Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company .
early twitter users
Although Musk is not satisfied with Twitter now, he even tried to transform Twitter himself. He has always been a veteran Twitter user himself, and has also strongly supported the work of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsy.
As early as 2018, Musk tweeted, "On Twitter, there are few likes, criticism is fierce, very hardcore. This is good."
Since posting his first tweet in 2010, Musk has grown into the richest man on earth worth more than $250 billion. He still frequently and continuously shares his views, Meme stalks and broken thoughts on Twitter.
Not only that, during the tenure of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Musk publicly expressed his support and appreciation for Jack more than once. In 2020, he said many times, "Jack has a kind heart" and "he is doing his best, and I support him."
What's more interesting, Musk and Jack also maintain a magical agreement on many things.
For example, these two technology giants in the Web2 world have both developed a strong interest in the encryption world and devoted themselves to it. For another example, in the big discussion about Web3, both Musk and Jack openly expressed their doubts and dislike of capital-driven Web3.
At the end of 2021, Twitter founder and CEO Jack announced his resignation as CEO. In the first half of 2022, Musk, who has always claimed to support Jack, announced his investment and acquisition of Twitter, which is also worth pondering.
4 years ago, Jack Dorsey quoted Musk’s interview and expressed his deep approval, “My goal is to do useful things, to use as much as possible to make the future better and more exciting.”
In the past 4 years, Musk has not broken his promise. Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink have all become enterprises recorded in history. Next, it will be the turn of Twitter.
