Twitter

2022 - 4 - 25

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Aljazeera.com"

Twitter kicks off deal negotiations with Tesla boss Musk: Report (Aljazeera.com)

Twitter's decision to engage with Musk shows it is exploring whether a sale is possible on attractive terms: Reuters.

In response, Musk has threatened to launch a tender offer that he could use to register Twitter shareholder support for his bid. Short term-minded investors such as hedge funds want Twitter to accept Musk’s offer or ask for only a small increase, the sources said. Twitter has not yet decided if it will explore a sale to put pressure on Musk to raise his bid, according to the sources. Twitter is also looking into whether regulators in any of the major markets it operates would object to Musk owning the company, the source added. Musk’s insistence that his bid for Twitter is his “best and final” has emerged as a hurdle in the deal negotiations, the sources said. The company’s decision to engage with Musk, taken earlier on Sunday, does not mean that it will accept his $54.20 per share bid, the sources said.

Why Twitter reconsidered Elon Musk's buyout deal (Quartz)

When Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion 10 days ago, the platform didn't welcome him with open arms. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is in some ways ...

Among them is Ben Thompson, the writer of the popular newsletter Stratechery, who believes that Twitter should go private—even if that means a transformation engineered by Musk, which could mean less moderation and more acrimonious discourse, as well as a larger focus on subscriptions. Twitter’s board had to justify rejecting a generous offer, more than 10% above the company’s current stock price. On April 21, Musk said he has the funding to get this deal done quickly.

Twitter may want to finalize Musk deal before reporting ... (CNBC)

SpaceX founder Elon Musk reacts at a post-launch news conference after the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft, lifted off on an ...

CNBC's Jim Cramer agreed, adding that he doesn't expect the company to post a good quarter. The company had been expected to provide an update by the time it reports its latest financial results on Thursday, if not before. Musk is offering $54.20 per share, while the stock was trading just above $50 on Monday afternoon.

Elon Musk Might Actually Buy Twitter, Like for Real (Gizmodo)

Twitter is gearing up to accept Musk's original $43 billion offer. Apparently he wasn't just trolling.

Musk first announced his offer to buy the social media company at around $54.20 per share on April 14. In premarket trading, they reached about $51.50 per share, but at the time of writing, had fallen to around $50.7. Although the deal is unconfirmed, both the Times and Reuters reported that sources tell them a deal could be finalized and made public later today. If Musk makes the purchase, Twitter would no longer be a publicly traded company, but instead, private. Important to point out though, it literally isn’t. The first amendment doesn’t protect anyone’s right to post on Twitter. Though Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, seemingly doesn’t understand that. Any moment now, a deal between between Twitter’s 11-member board and Elon Musk could be announced.

Reports: Twitter in talks with Musk over bid to buy platform (WITN)

(AP) - Twitter's board and Tesla CEO Elon Musk negotiated into the early hours of Monday over his bid to buy the social media platform, The New York Times ...

In one August 2018 tweet, for instance, Musk asserted that he had the funding to take Tesla private for $420 a share, although a court has ruled that it wasn’t true. Musk himself is a prolific tweeter with a following that rivals several pop stars in the ranks of the most popular accounts. Truth Social is part of Trump’s new media company, which has agreed to be taken public by Digital World Acquisition Corp. Shares of DWAC dropped 16.2% Monday and are down 46% since Musk revealed his stake in Twitter. Eventually he became CEO and led the company to astronomical success as the world’s most valuable automaker and largest seller of electric vehicles. Some users said Monday that they were planning to quit the platform if Musk took it over. It was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. “Do not allow Twitter to become a petri dish for hate speech or falsehoods that subvert our democracy.” As both candidate and president, Trump made Twitter a powerful megaphone for speaking directly to the public, often using incendiary and divisive language on hot-button issues. Musk said last week that he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter, putting pressure on the company’s board to negotiate a deal. Advertisers, currently Twitter’s main customers, have also pushed for the stronger content rules Musk has criticized. On April 14, Musk announced an offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share. Musk believes he can increase revenue through subscriptions that give paying customers a better experience — possibly even an ad-free version of Twitter.

Report: Fake Twitter accounts spread Chinese propaganda (The Detroit News)

A U.S.-based intelligence company says it uncovered a network of more than 600 inauthentic Twitter accounts that spread a positive narrative of China's ...

China has also been accused of using forced labor in programs that transferred Uyghurs out of Xinjiang and assigned them to different factories around the country. The report comes as China is being criticized internationally for its treatment of Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group native to the Xinjiang region. The network and its tweets appear to be intended to promote “a positive narrative regarding Xinjiang and Uyghur treatment within the People’s Republic of China” and actively targeted a foreign audience, the report found.