Discussion

• @alwaleed_talal @alwaleed_talal on x

  I don't believe that the proposed offer by @elonmusk ($54.20) comes close to the intrinsic value of @Twitter given its growth prospects. Being one of the largest & long-term shareholders of Twitter, @Kingdom_KHC & I reject this offer. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/.…

• @carnage4life @carnage4life on x

  The question for Twitter's board is whether the historical precedent in rejecting Elon's acquisition offer is Yahoo rejecting Ballmer's offer (high point on journey to irrelevance) or Snapchat rejecting Zuck's offer (set tone as a company with a bold vision now worth 20x offer).

• @live_news_nick @live_news_nick on x

  MORE: “One person close to the situation said that the board wanted to support CEO Parag Agrawal, who only assumed the role in November. Meanwhile, Musk hasn't provided details of his plans for Twitter or his financing for the deal.” $TWTR https://www.theinformation.com/ ...

• @rubinreport Dave Rubin on x

  Elon is literally trying to save the free world. He could buy and island or leave on a spaceship but he is choosing to fight. Notice who is with him and who is against him... https://twitter.com/...

• @antoniogm @antoniogm on x

  It's fascinating the outcry at the thought of Elon buying Twitter: We don't want this guy with the wrong values running the public square! Meanwhile one of the biggest Twitter shareholders is....Saudi Arabia. https://twitter.com/...

• @brianlilley Brian Lilley on x

  I've seen a lot of outrage today over the idea of @elonmusk buying Twitter. I've never seen outrage at a Saudi prince owning the biggest chunk of Twitter. You know, Saudi Arabia, the place where journalists are killed, free speech suppressed and a bloody war in Yemen funded. http…

• @conor64 Conor Friedersdorf on x

  Also fascinating how little the same people are concerned by TikTok's ownership https://twitter.com/...

• @carnage4life @carnage4life on x

  Elon already putting Twitter's board in a headlock if they don't put his offer to a shareholder vote versus rejecting it out of hand. There definitely will be some angry shareholders if there isn't a very very good reason for rejecting the takeover bid. https://twitter.com/...

• @keithboykin Keith Boykin on x

  The Wall Street Journal reports that Twitter is considering a poison pill that would prevent Elon Musk from significantly increasing his stake in the company. https://www.wsj.com/...

• @jeffnolan Jeff Nolan on x

  gee ya think? https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @nickbilton Nick Bilton on x

  The Twitter board is currently watching season two of Succession to determine how to respond to Musk's takeover bid. “Pause it! Pause it! Logan just did a poison pill defense... Quick, that's it, we have to do a poison pill defense!”

• @amir Amir Efrati on x

  new: Twitter's board views Musk's bid as unwelcome, we are told. That suggests a big fight is brewing. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...

• @elonmusk Elon Musk on x

  @Alwaleed_Talal ... Interesting. Just two questions, if I may. How much of Twitter does the Kingdom own, directly & indirectly? What are the Kingdom's views on journalistic freedom of speech?

• @cameron Cameron Winklevoss on x

  Twitter is considering a poison pill to thwart @elonmusk's offer. They would rather self-immolate than give up their censorship programs. This shows you how deeply committed they are to Orwellian control of the narratives and global discourse. Scary.

• @edbott Ed Bott on x

  When I saw the news this morning, literally the first two words I thought were “poison pill.” https://twitter.com/...

• @iyengarish Rishi Iyengar on x

  Tbf “tell me why” pretty much encapsulates today's overall vibe https://twitter.com/...

• @arcalinea Jay Graber on x

  Fascinating thread from someone who was there in the early days https://twitter.com/...

• @andrewhartar Andrew Hart on x

  Two huge claims in this thread: 1. Twitter bought TweetDeck to protect itself against the threat of a billionaire acquiring all third-party Twitter apps 2. When Twitter infamously shut down their developer API without explanation, it was for the same reason. https://twitter.com/.…

• @thevunderkind @thevunderkind on x

  this is...huge if true. wow. https://twitter.com/...

• @thoughtwax Emmet Connolly on x

  Fascinating backstory on how Twitter became the company it is today (and the platform it is not) https://twitter.com/...

• @joshdcaplan Josh Caplan on x

  Latest: Vanguard Group recently upped its stake in Twitter and is now the company's largest shareholder, bumping Elon Musk out of the top spot. https://www.wsj.com/...

• @martinsfp Martin Sfp Bryant on x

  Never a dull moment in Twitter land. https://twitter.com/...

• @mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x

  All of our 401k accounts should totally takeover Twitter. https://twitter.com/...

• @epro Emil Protalinski on x

  Player 2 has entered the game https://twitter.com/...

• @benedictevans Benedict Evans on x

  Watching Elon say that you should be allowed to say anything ‘legal’ online, which is what everyone says until they discover how social networks work https://livestream.com/...

• @yishan @yishan on x

  I've now been asked multiple times for my take on Elon's offer for Twitter. So fine, this is what I think about that. I will assume the takeover succeeds, and he takes Twitter private. (I have little knowledge/insight into how actual takeover battles work or play out) (long 🧵)

• @arcalinea Jay Graber on x

  The reason a platform as important as Twitter should be a protocol is that someone buying the company, or any other crazy thing that could happen over the long course of history, shouldn't disrupt this essential tool for human connection and social sense-making.

• @leahculver Leah Culver on x

  Forming a DAO to buy Twitter.

• @davidrlurie @davidrlurie on x

  @ScottNover The SEC consent decree will remain in place, whoever owns Twitter, unless and until the judge rules otherwise. Musk plainly hates that fact.

• @alexstamos Alex Stamos on x

  It's shocking that Elon has such a childish view of what has to happen every day just to make social media usable. He's spectacularly poorly prepared for this. Reminder: there are 3-5 orders of magnitude more moderation 99% of users agree with than the hard political calls. https…

• @edbott Ed Bott on x

  “Mr. Musk, that person from the SEC is still holding on line 2, and your lawyers are calling on line 3.” https://twitter.com/...

• @tyler Tyler Winklevoss on x

  Censorship is bad enough, but the coordination between social media companies, the media, and the government has been downright sinister. Hopeful that @elonmusk can fix this.

• @tracyalloway Tracy Alloway on x

  Asked if funding is secured, @elonmusk says “I can do it if possible” and I feel like this perfectly circular response is something that I will be borrowing a lot going forward. Editor: Can you get it to me by Tuesday? Me: “I can do it if possible.”

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  Musk is talking about “his obsession with truth” on stage right now. Four years ago, he tried to get me to write that a British cave rescuer in Thailand was a “child rapist” because of false information fed to him by a fake private investigator.

• @eleanorterrett Eleanor Terrett on x

  In his Ted talk, @elonmusk is talking about letting Twitter run similarly to the blockchain where the algorithms are controlled by the community rather than a handful of people writing and enforcing the rules.

• @kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x

  “In my view, Twitter should match the laws of the country.” - Elon Musk on how Twitter should handle user speech. Said the algorithm code should all be public.

• @charlesarthur Charles Arthur on x

  Hearing Elon say Twitter should open source its algorithm and looking forward to Tesla doing the same for its AutoPilot software

• @business @business on x

  BREAKING: Elon Musk says he's “not sure that I will actually be able to” acquire Twitter in his first public comments about the takeover offer https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @tayhatmaker Taylor Hatmaker on x

  elon musk log off challenge https://techcrunch.com/...

• @gartenberg Michael Gartenberg on x

  Perhaps he should buy Clubhouse? He can have a platform for rambling, a16z makes a buck or two and the rest of us can ignore all three. https://techcrunch.com/...

• @tayhatmaker Taylor Hatmaker on x

  I wrote about how Elon Musk could undo a lot of Twitter's recent progress on serious platform problems like misinformation and harassment. Content moderation isn't rocket science but it isn't what he's making it out to be, either. https://techcrunch.com/...

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  Elon Musk gives Twitter reasons to reject his bid https://www.axios.com/...

• @decryptmedia Decrypt on x

  “It takes some pretty impressive mental gymnastics to associate any type of ‘freedom’ with the richest man in the world initiating a hostile takeover,” says @ummjackson, co-creator of Dogecoin. https://decrypt.co/... https://twitter.com/...

• @maxkennerly Max Kennerly on x

  The one consistent thing through Elon Musk's temper tantrum has been his total inability to grasp the basics of how social media works. It is, for example, 100% “legal” to use the reply function to spam everyone. Users get banned for it because of Twitter's Terms of Service. http…

• @nick_stevens_gr NickStevens Graphics on x

  Elon Musk's Twitter takeover could undo years of progress https://techcrunch.com/... via @techcrunch “Twitter has a beautiful culture of hilarious constructive criticism, and I saw that go silent because of his minions attacking employees,”

• @charlesarthur Charles Arthur on x

  🙄 of course there's absolutely no way this won't be gamed by the people who have the most to gain from gaming the algorithm https://twitter.com/...

• @alexweprin Alex Weprin on x

  Elon Musk says he has a “Plan B” if Twitter's board rejects his takeover offer. Pitches Twitter as an open-source social network with minimal censorship. The details: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ...

• @lanceulanoff Lance Ulanoff on x

  Why do people think “Open Source” is the answer to everything? https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ...

• @andyjayhawk @andyjayhawk on x

  Musk has said he felt “coerced” into settling with the SEC over his “funding secured” tweet, but has yet to provide any evidence to refute the SEC's findings that funding was actually not secured. https://twitter.com/...

• @byyourlogic @byyourlogic on x

  Twitter takeover stuff made me think of this again. this story really died a prolonged death https://www.theverge.com/...

• @lisaabramowicz1 Lisa Abramowicz on x

  Elon Musk says his bid for Twitter is intended to create “an inclusive arena for free speech,” not as a way to make money. “I don't care about the economics at all.” “I could technically afford,” although he adds he doesn't know whether he'll be able to. https://www.bloomberg.com…

• @tprstly Theo Priestley on x

  And there's the dump https://twitter.com/...

• @rsarver Ryan Sarver on x

  I love the *idea* of @elonmusk buying twitter. But I fear he's spent about as much time thinking through the really complex challenges of how to fix it as most people do their fantasy football lineup.

• @richerd @richerd on x

  If Elon' offer to buy Twitter is rejected. The next logical move is to create a DAO and attempt to buy Twitter ourselves. We can call it the Titter DAO as homage (for the culture of course)

• @pmarca Marc Andreessen on x

  Elon must not be allowed to impose his refusal to censor us on us.

• @mattblaze Matt Blaze on x

  I'm sure the erratic billionaire guy will mature and grow in to it once the deal is settled.

• @arcalinea Jay Graber on x

  Power changes hands many times across centuries. It's been a little over a decade since online social networks were created. We have to take the long view and think, “what if someone bad takes this over,” and build more resilient systems.

• @nickadobos Nick Dobos on x

  How do you simultaneously open source the algorithm and remove all bots? Won't the bots just get better? Proof of Stake?

• @nickadobos Nick Dobos on x

  Least surprising TED talk ever lol

• @ncweaver Nicholas Weaver on x

  Gee, I wonder if this is just a pump & dump scheme to try to make his buy-a-board-seat purchase less incredibly dumb... https://twitter.com/...

• @joerogan Joe Rogan on x

  Praise Odin for Elon Musk. https://www.instagram.com/...

• @brosandprose Ella Dawson on x

  Are we really asking Elon Musk how he's ~so good~ at Twitter, instead of asking about the out of control racial and gender discrimination at Tesla under his leadership? Or his tweets comparing Trudeau to Hitler? Or his avoidance of COVID safety regulations at his factories?

• @wolfofwallst Jordan Belfort on x

  Elon Musk Ted Talk — he just called the SEC a bunch of bastards! Classic!

• @joepompliano Joe Pompliano on x

  Elon is speaking about Twitter at TED. He says he doesn't “have all the answers” but that the algorithm should be open-sourced. He wants to limit spam & his main objective is to defend free speech. He also says it's not about money. “I don't care about the economics at all.” http…

• @brij Brij Singh on x

  Twitter board has execs from salesforce and silverlake. They will get competitive offers. I wonder what made Musk go all “barbarians at the gate” with his low ball offer. Raise the offer and get all the employees to root for you! https://www.theinformation.com/ ...

• @samidh @samidh on x

  Effective moderation is not inherently in conflict with free speech. It is required for people to feel free to speak. Anyone who doesn't get this has a high school stoner level grasp of societal issues and has never spent 5 min working on trust & safety. https://www.bloomberg.com…

• @lizrummy @lizrummy on x

  He has not thought about the implementation before this moment https://twitter.com/...

• @ericnewcomer Eric Newcomer on x

  I mean Donald Trump named his social media company “Truth Social.” Reassuring to hear they're both so obsessed with truth https://twitter.com/...

• @ryanwhitwam Ryan Whitwam on x

  It's pretty telling that every right-wing asshole account is cheering for the richest man in the world as he tries to buy a website in the name of “free speech.” Yes, the same people who are doing book bans and restricting what teachers can say.

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  I honestly would have bet money that Elon Musk ended that by saying “Thank you for coming to my TED talk”

• @kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x

  TED talk is over. I think the biggest takeaway here is that despite Musk loudly claiming he wants to buy Twitter because of free speech issues, most of the things he mentioned he would do wrt policing speech felt like things Twitter already does. Clear there isn't a master plan h…

• @alexstamos Alex Stamos on x

  @elonmusk Also not sure how Twitter stays up and running in a 0% tech unemployment economy when he continuously insults the employee base. A question for enterprising reporters: does accepting a tender to go private trigger accelerated vesting of RSUs? If so... swoosh out the doo…

• @mmasnick Mike Masnick on x

  As I said a few weeks ago, Elon does not want “free speech” or “no moderation” on Twitter. He just wants *different* moderation. https://twitter.com/...

• @pt @pt on x

  This is just a specific case of the general: trust in institutions is good, actually. That's a good reason to algorithmically discourage the grifters who monetize erosion of trust in institutions on mainstream apps, not to see their grift as a “free speech” issue. https://twitter…

• @karlbode Karl Bode on x

  very large chance it's all a big, dumb distraction https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  Tend to agree with this. That said, Facebook is controlled by a single person. It's publicly traded, but one man controls the vote. https://twitter.com/...

• @karaswisher Kara Swisher on x

  Btw the TED audience is the perfect place for Elon to unload. They love being there in the room and they will be friendly. Elon can certainly handle tough questions, but with little pushback this is the interview equivalent of a high five. That said, perfect timing! https://twitt…

• @jtemple James Temple on x

  It's especially impressive that his most concrete proposal (beyond a misogynistic name change) is a product already in the works. https://twitter.com/...

• @juliafawal Julia Fawal on x

  “I'm not saying I have all the answers here” says @elonmusk at #TED2022 in response to very basic questions about “free speech” & what he wants to change at Twitter. He says he'll add an edit button, but has no answer on how to manage it. He's got no answers to these softball Qs.

• @newsismybusines @newsismybusines on x

  If true, and it closes, the deal would put Puerto Rican Executive Orlando Bravo at the helm of Twitter. https://twitter.com/...

• Vox Peter Kafka on x

  Is Elon Musk really going to buy Twitter for $43 billion?

• @elonmusk Elon Musk on x

  I made an offer https://www.sec.gov/...

• @zerohedge @zerohedge on x

  Well this is awkward: TWTR board hired Goldman to “advise” it that the @elonmusk $54.20 offer is too low. Only problem: Goldman has a SELL rating with a $30 price target. Oops. https://twitter.com/...

• @elonmusk Elon Musk on x

  Taking Twitter private at $54.20 should be up to shareholders, not the board

• @justinsuntron @justinsuntron on x

  I believe @Twitter is far from unleashing its full potential, thus I am offering $60 per share to take the platform private. But we fully support the reform initiatives of @elonmusk and would love to see Twitter becoming crypto-native and Web3 friendly.

• @fredwilson Fred Wilson on x

  Twitter is too important to be owned and controlled by a single person. The opposite should be happening. Twitter should be decentralized as a protocol that powers an ecosystem of communication products and services.

• @maxboot @maxboot on x

  I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter. He seems to believe that on social media anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.

• @shoshanazuboff Shoshana Zuboff on x

  Friends, Musk/Twitter headlines are all variants of ‘what will Elon do?’ It's a signal of how lost we are. We obsess over one man and his whims because we don't yet have the democratic rule of law needed to govern our information spaces. Without law power is dangerous.🧵[1/8]

• @rabois Keith Rabois on x

  The Twitter woke employees are in for a rude awakening. Elon once threatened to fire all the interns for waiting in a long line for coffee at SpaceX and installed cameras to ensure it wouldn't happen again.

• @mcuban Mark Cuban on x

  My conclusion, @elonmusk is fucking with the SEC. His filing w/the SEC allows him to say he wants to take a company private for $54.20 😂 Vs his “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured” Price go up. His shares get sold. Profit⬆️ SEC like WTF just happened.

• @rsarver Ryan Sarver on x

  “Why hasn't twitter product improved much over the years?” There hasn't been a single day without drama since the company started.

• @bchappatta Brian Chappatta on x

  For those wondering, Elon Musk has about $2.95 billion of “cash,” as estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He just made a $43 billion cash offer for Twitter. You can figure out where that cash will come from. https://twitter.com/...

• @mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x

  Musk admits he's “literally on the toilet” when tweeting sometimes, stream of consciousness tweets (how is reporting on this my job)

• @mcuban Mark Cuban on x

  Want to see the whole world lose their shit ? Get Peter Thiel to partner with Elon and raise the bid for Twitter

• @kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x

  “I'm not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it...I could technically afford it. But this is not a sort of way to make money... I don't care about the economics at all.” - Elon Musk talking about his Twitter bid at TED right now

• @zei_squirrel @zei_squirrel on x

  I wonder what a twitter owned by elon musk would have done about the account which is tracking his flights that he tried to shut down https://twitter.com/...

• @mcuban Mark Cuban on x

  Every major tech company , Google, fb, et al is on the phone with their anti trust lawyers asking if they can buy Twitter and get it approved. And Twitter is on the phone with their lawyers asking which can be their white knight. Gonna be interesting https://twitter.com/...

• @alexeheath Alex Heath on x

  Can't make this stuff up: It's “focus week” for employees at Twitter. They had Monday off and the rest of the week is supposed to be heads-down on projects with minimal meetings. Now they wake up to Elon's hostile takeover playing out.

• @shoshanazuboff Shoshana Zuboff on x

  Abdicating our information spaces to private control concentrates unaccountable power in the regime of #SurveillanceCapitalism. Our fate should not depend on the whims of individuals. What they decide today may be undone tomorrow. No democracy can survive these conditions.[8/8]

• @shoshanazuboff Shoshana Zuboff on x

  Just as Mr. Zuckerberg leans on “free speech” to justify corrupt information flows that advance data extraction, Mr. Musk takes center stage with the same rhetoric. It's a shameless distortion of the First Amendment and Bill of Rights. [6/8]

• @pmarca Marc Andreessen on x

  The future of democracy rests on the many pro-censorship media billionaires crushing the one anti-censorship media billionaire.

• @karaswisher Kara Swisher on x

  Money speaks: Wall Street does not believe this deal is happening. The spread is enormous. https://twitter.com/...

• @verysmallriver @verysmallriver on x

  i was on tumblr when yahoo had to sell it for $3 million after buying it for $1.1 billion. we were all a little bit responsible for losing yahoo a billion dollars. and with that type of collective effort, i believe we here on twitter can lose elon musk even more

• @carlquintanilla Carl Quintanilla on x

  * TWITTER WILL HOLD AN ALL HANDS MEETING WITH EMPLOYEES AT 2PM PACIFIC TO DISCUSS MUSK OFFER -SOURCE @reuters $TWTR

• @moskov Dustin Moskovitz on x

  If I were a Tesla investor I'd be asking myself how much liquidity the boss has right now.

• @lt_winslow Lt. Winslow on x

  $43b seems like a lot of money to spend to stop people from tweeting out this photo https://twitter.com/...

• @tayhatmaker Taylor Hatmaker on x

  fedex knocked on my door literally two minutes ago and handed me this i am not lying https://twitter.com/...

• @rbreich Robert Reich on x

  We are watching a hostile takeover of Twitter by the richest man in the world who regularly tries to silence critics. This is what oligarchy looks like.

• @alexstamos Alex Stamos on x

  There is no way you unlock the value of Twitter by making it 99.9% porn, fake Ray-Ban and male enhancement ads. He really doesn't seem to understand the adversarial nature of running any online speech platform. @elonmusk, happy to privately speedrun my trust and safety class! htt…

• @reckless Nilay Patel on x

  Elon proposes banning spam bots on Twitter which... hey did you know spam is not actually illegal under the First Amendment? So he is writing a speech regulation because he doesn't like the experience of other people's speech.

• @reckless Nilay Patel on x

  “Civilizational risk is decreased the more we increase trust in Twitter as a platform” is an incredible thing for anyone to say, let alone Elon Musk

• @natesilver538 Nate Silver on x

  Pillars of democracy: * Free and fair elections * Separation of powers * Equal rights for all US citizens * Content moderation on Twitter https://twitter.com/...

• @tedchris Chris Anderson on x

  THIS! Here's a better link to watch @elonmusk live. https://livestream.com/... Come join us. Something amazing is scheduled to start in about 15 minutes time.

• @repmtg Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on x

  Kill freedom of speech to save democracy? Say you're a communist. Just say it. You're actually scared of people freely discussing ideas and saying words. You're terrified of the impact on politics when truth isn't censored. I'm offended by your weakness. https://twitter.com/...

• @laurenboebert Lauren Boebert on x

  .@ElonMusk is showing us that free speech IS worth fighting for! I hope Twitter's board sees the light. If they reject his offer, the company's stock will likely never recover.

• @sbf_ftx @sbf_ftx on x

  1) FWIW, some thoughts on what a decentralized Twitter might look like:

• @reckless Nilay Patel on x

  This conversation between Chris Anderson and Elon Musk about speech regulation is the most depressingly stupid thing I have heard in a long time. Chris really mentioned “fire in a crowded theater,” which is like sign number one you have no idea what you're talking about.

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  There's an obvious solution to this: Twitter employees should all work on a severed floor https://twitter.com/...

• @carnage4life @carnage4life on x

  The market doesn't believe Twitter's shareholders will accept Elon's offer. It would have jumped to $54 otherwise. Expect the stock to tank if so and for pressure on Parag to show meaningful user or revenue growth this year for passing this up. Jack couldn't, can he? https://twit…

• @scottnover Scott Nover on x

  Elon Musk can buy Twitter but he still can't tweet about Tesla without a lawyer's approval. https://twitter.com/...

• @realwillybot @realwillybot on x

  Elon Musk after he owns 100% of Twitter https://twitter.com/...

• @matt_levine Matt Levine on x

  at the risk of taking this too seriously, i will say it's kind of weird for the richest man in the world to say “this is the public square, i will take it private.” https://twitter.com/...

• @scottnover Scott Nover on x

  Elon Musk's Twitter takeover has nothing to do with “free speech.” My latest essay in @qz: https://qz.com/...

• @mayazi Maya Zehavi on x

  Twitter as a private company just reduces the little public accountability social media have as fiduciaries to the public, but corporations (public or private) have a right to do as they will provided it's legal. Limiting free speech on social media is curation & moderation https…

• @ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald on x

  Like everyone, I have no idea what Elon Musk's intentions are with Twitter. But what I know for sure - having seen it first-hand with Substack, Rumble, Callin - is that few things are more urgent than platforms devoted to free speech and discourse, rejecting messaging control. ht…

• @caroljsroth Carol Roth on x

  “I'm going to leave Twitter if Elon Musk takes over” is the new “I'm going to move to Canada if Trump wins”.

• @brianstelter Brian Stelter on x

  “My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder,” Musk adds. “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.” Here's the text from the SEC filing 👇🏼 https://twitter.com/...

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  Very notable that Twitter stock isn't rising close to Musk's bid. Traders either don't believe he's serious, that he can get the cash or that the board will accept.

• @ashleevance Ashlee Vance on x

  To help Twitter's board stay focused during their deliberations, Elon will have a Falcon 9 hover over the Twitter HQ for the next several days

• @ivanthek @ivanthek on x

  Funding not yet secured. https://twitter.com/...

• @shoshanazuboff Shoshana Zuboff on x

  The result: people, society, & democracy are at the mercy of the individuals who exercise ownership and/or executive control over information. We beg Mr. Zuckerberg to stop the social wreckage, honor our privacy, protect us from disinformation, but he refuses.@mariaressa [2/8]

• @shoshanazuboff Shoshana Zuboff on x

  Democracy will only advance with laws & institutions designed to guarantee our knowledge rights and the integrity of information in the digital century. Absent law, we're forced to worry,'What will Elon do?' The emperors have all the clothes, while we run naked. @Moonalice [5/8]

• @shoshanazuboff Shoshana Zuboff on x

  As Constitutional scholar @tribelaw tirelessly repeats, the Bill of Rights pertains only to government action, not to private companies. [7/8] https://thehill.com/...

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  If launched as a tender offer, yes. If launched the way Musk launched it, then no. https://twitter.com/...

• @anthony Anthony DeRosa on x

  It's unclear how much $TWTR Prince Alwaleed still owns. His last filing was at the end of 2016 which stated 34,948,975 shares of Common Stock https://www.sec.gov/...

• @rmac18 Ryan Mac on x

  Does this mean he views Mark Zuckerberg, whose company's board he sits on, as a “pro-censorship media billionaire”? https://twitter.com/...

• @lizrhoffman Liz Hoffman on x

  Hostile bidders generally need two out of three things in their corner: shareholder support, cold hard cash, and a board with few alternatives. Right now it looks like Elon Musk is 0 for 3. ⁦Latest w/ ⁦@CaraRLombardo⁩ on his quixotic bird hunt https://www.wsj.com/...

• @szhang_ds @szhang_ds on x

  Free speech absolutism sounds nice in theory. But the reality is that the large majority of content moderation is not the frequently-debated areas of hate speech/misinfo, but rather areas such spam, scams, etc. Even Elon himself has criticized crypto scammers after all. https://t…

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  This is another reminder of why tech founders love dual class shares and voting control. Zuck turned down Yahoo. Spiegel turned down Facebook. Both at good prices. Twitter has 3 founders, and none has any real power to stop this (save for Jack w/ one board vote and <3% stock).

• @amy_siskind @amy_siskind on x

  As I have said before, no good will come of megalomaniac Elon Musk owning this platform. We will find other alternatives over time. And frankly with him letting back all the dangerous nut jobs, even Facebook is better for now, warts and all.

• @shoshanazuboff Shoshana Zuboff on x

  We've learned FB is big business in which corrupt information is positively correlated with revenue. FB's profit-maximizing imperative ignores us. Privacy is destroyed. Corrupt information triumphs. Society fractures. Profit wins. Only law can change this. @carolecadwalla [3/8]

• @beniaminmincu @beniaminmincu on x

  Twitter has effectively become the defacto Town Square for the world. It is important for humanity that free speech be preserved, and twitter's potential be unlocked. Perhaps the optimal path would be for @elonmusk to buy twitter & immediately open source and decentralize it. htt…

• @shoshanazuboff Shoshana Zuboff on x

  Mr. Musk wants to join the gods who rule the information space and control answers to the essential questions of knowledge, authority, and power in our time: Who knows? Who decides who knows? Who decides who decides? But we never elected them to govern. We need laws not men.[4/8]

• @ryanmoore Ryan Moore on x

  @elonmusk ... And we get more clarity on the significance and importance of Elon owning Twitter. If Elon owns Twitter this will also push Facebook/Instagram, TikTok and possibly Google/YouTube to allow a lot more free speech than they do now.

• @jbouie @jbouie on x

  i guess “woke” means drinking coffee now https://twitter.com/...

• @fpwellman Fred Wellman on x

  This is just an awful idea. https://twitter.com/...

• @kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x

  Pretty clear: The deal is not going through at this number. Twitter stock fell today despite the premium Musk offered. The real story now is what happens next. https://twitter.com/...

• @nichcarlson Nicholas Carlson on x

  Didn't fully appreciate before today how much the MAGA/Barstool/Convoy types lay claim to Elon Musk as one of their own.

• @semil @semil on x

  Just purely from a financial POV, Elon's bid for Twitter gives the company a 38% premium from the day his large investment was publicly disclosed. Unlikely anyone else would pay such a premium. Q - in previous takeover attempts, what are the % premiums typically offered?

• @normative Julian Sanchez on x

  (a) This is probably a troll and/or pump & dump. (b) If Musk DOES buy Twitter, he's fairly quickly going to realize a whole lot of moderation is necessary to keep it viable (c) If he's really committed to running a Gab clone as a vanity project, something else becomes dominant. h…

• @packym Packy McCormick on x

  $54.20. He put 420 in the offer price 😂 Somebody please bid him up to $69

• @sifill_ldf Sherrilyn Ifill on x

  Why settle for a board seat when you can own & control the entire thing? https://twitter.com/...

• @parkermolloy Parker Molloy on x

  It's honestly wild that there are a bunch of these conservative guys just licking their chops at the prospect of a weird vindictive dictator type running a social media company. What does “woke” even mean in this context? https://twitter.com/...

• @nic__carter Nic Carter on x

  @MaxBoot It's a private company, just build your own :)

• @iamharaldur @iamharaldur on x

  Thousands of amazing people work at Twitter. Their job is to build and maintain a product used by hundreds of millions globally. That is an incredibly hard job and we don't always succeed. But I'm proud to work alongside them and today I tip my hat in respect.

• @dan_rowinski @dan_rowinski on x

  “You do wonder if he's thought this through,” says Stephen Diamond, an associate professor of law at Santa Clara University. Going out on a wild limb here but . . . no? https://twitter.com/...

• @gregolear Greg Olear on x

  Musk just loves manipulating the market. https://twitter.com/...

• @ericgarland Eric Garland on x

  Well, it was just reported that he's been using this company to run what appear to be pump-and-dump scams using “market sentiment” driven by Twitter. Owning the company would be in the interest of Musk, and his foreign intelligence backers. https://apnews.com/...

• @pkafka Peter Kafka on x

  Would be an excellent Truth Social owner.

• @kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x

  Is there a Plan B if the board rejects your offer? “There is,” Musk says, but declined to share.

• @gaberivera Gabe Rivera on x

  Would love if @TEDchris had asked Elon Musk to list, in his view, the most serious examples of free speech being limited on Twitter...

• @rmac18 Ryan Mac on x

  in other words, whose definition of “legal”? https://twitter.com/...

• @suka_hiroaki Andreas Proschofsky on x

  Musk's idea of how the Twitter edit button might work without people abusing it is: Only make it available for a short time and also reset retweets and favs. So. Uhm. Like: Deleting and making a new tweet? Wow, that guy has really though hard about the problem #TED2022

• @pkafka Peter Kafka on x

  It's almost like he hasn't thought this through. https://twitter.com/...

• @sarahfrier Sarah Frier on x

  people should get only a limited time to edit tweets and “probably the thing to do on the edit is to zero out all retweets and favorites” so that those people don't get caught promoting something where meaning has changed

• @mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x

  lol, he takes a dig at zuckerberg's owning Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp and the share structure surrounding it, so that “Mark Zuckerberg the 14th” would still own it somewhere down the line. “We wouldn't have that at Twitter.” —EM

• @rmac18 Ryan Mac on x

  Having talked to employees at social networking companies, this may be easy to declare, but what country's laws is Twitter going to choose to abide by? India's laws look a lot different from those in the US. https://twitter.com/...

• @kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x

  Musk's thoughts on policing users: * if it's in a gray area, leave it up * more temporary suspensions, be careful with permanent bans * you need to be able to say stuff people disagree with Twitter, of course, would argue it already does all of this stuff

• @sarahfrier Sarah Frier on x

  Musk says, in terms of speech he would be “very reluctant to delete things.. very cautious with permanent bans. Time outs are better.” https://twitter.com/...

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  Elon says free speech is working on $TWTR if “someone you don't like can say something you don't like.” If so, then Twitter is free speech central.

• @stevekovach Steve Kovach on x

  This is literally what Twitter does now. https://twitter.com/...

• @kellycnbc Kelly Evans on x

  “If in bounds, let the speech exist. If it's a grey area, I would say, let the tweet exist. If there's a lot of controversy, you would not necessarily want to promote that tweet. I'm not saying I have all the answers here.” -Musk TED talk @CNBCTheExchange $TWTR

• @derektmead @derektmead on x

  prolonged Twitter usage is correlated with the same neurological outcomes as air duster addiction https://twitter.com/...

• @mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x

  he also started the talk basically doing the “hand over mouth” emoji but like, irl. (he tweeted that last week when coming off the board)

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  Elon: Goal is to maintain as many shareholders as possible, as a private co. Well, that's one way to help finance the bid. Says he doesn't care about Twitter as a biz, per se. He cares about it as a utility. “I don't care about the economics at all.” (those shareholders do)

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  “I don't care about the economics at all,” Elon Musk says of his plans to buy Twitter

• @engadget @engadget on x

  Watch Elon Musk's TED talk live for free https://www.engadget.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  Two things that aren't mutually exclusive: 1/ Elon is serious about his offer. 2/ Twitter will determine it isn't a serious offer.

• @reckless Nilay Patel on x

  Elon soon to discover that “free speech around the globe” means very different things in different countries, none of whom like having their laws broken and who will happily retaliate against Tesla and SpaceX to spite the world's richest man https://t.co/cI7RH2iFJ4 https://t.co/O…

• @litcapital @litcapital on x

  Elon Musk went from: 1. teasing changes to twitter over a poll 2. buying a 9.2% stake 3. accepting then declining a board seat 4. getting sued by twitter shareholders over delayed disclosure 5. offering to buy ALL of twitter in just a few weeks. absolute rollercoaster

• @farronbalanced Farron Cousins on x

  Imagine having enough money to help cure diseases, end poverty and famine, or to house the homeless, but instead spending it to buy Twitter because you have some kind of God complex. https://twitter.com/...

• @gmbutts Gerald Butts on x

  The Saudis say no dice to Elon. https://twitter.com/...

• @steveschmidtses Steve Schmidt on x

  Hmmmm. Better call Jared. https://twitter.com/...

• @armchairdude @armchairdude on x

  Maybe this whole Elon Musk Twitter thing is the catalyst that gets someone to sit up and finally attempt to build a better Twitter. https://www.techmeme.com/...

• @lizrhoffman Liz Hoffman on x

  The world's richest man should be able to buy anything he wants. But can Elon Musk actually buy Twitter? (Spoiler: he doesn't have the money and getting it will be harder than it sounds) https://www.wsj.com/...

• @samfbiddle Sam Biddle on x

  I don't understand why if you were a billionaire you'd even want to use twitter, let alone own it, I'd be on a beach paying robots to fight each other every day. the compulsion to control the means of posting when you have enough money to never post again is so bizarre to me

• @sbf_ftx @sbf_ftx on x

  2) Tweets go on-chain, encrypted; the sender chooses who has access to them (i.e. who can decrypt). In some sense this unifies DMs and tweets—DMs are just tweets with the privacy setting of “only Jill”.

• @film_girl Christina Warren on x

  I also don't think Elon is even the worst-case scenario here. I think a far scarier scenario is if a competing PE bid to go private comes in. Sigh. Love to all the Flock tweeps out there right now. I'm sorry you're dealing with this.

• @tombrady Tom Brady on x

  If you buy twitter can you delete the combine photo? @elonmusk

• @podsaveamerica @podsaveamerica on x

  NEW: @jonfavs asks Twitter co-founder @ev his thoughts on Elon: https://twitter.com/...

• @sherman4949 Alex Sherman on x

  In January, @DineshDSouza floated the idea of buying a social media platform at @elonmusk Musk responded “interesting ideas.” https://twitter.com/...

• @jason_pontin Jason Pontin on x

  Needless to say, this is almost certainly a publicity stunt. Twitter is not for sale to Elon Musk for $41B. The company's market cap is currently $45B. I don't know what “the Musk premium” is for Twitter's shareholder, but it's got to be at least 15%.

• @nigel_farage Nigel Farage on x

  This is the best news for free speech in years! https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x

  Prince alwaleed back in the mix. Kingdom holdings has been in Twitter as a shareholder since before it went public. this is board signaling fwiw. cough up more money, he says! https://twitter.com/...

• @cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x

  i feel like what we're seeing this is just the rich person version of like...meme stock/robinhood stuff. just this idea of being bored and throwing money around to make chaotic stuff happen. hostile takeovers and market manipulation as a service lol

• @punk6529 @punk6529 on x

  feels like a missed chance to round this up to $69. https://twitter.com/...

• @zamosta Aaron Zamost on x

  I wonder how Twitter's search for a head of communications is going.

• @tcarmody Tim Carmody on x

  One problem with Musk owning Twitter is that it turns into a dysfunctional, nefarious place (that is, more so) through his own policies; another problem is that he gets bored with it and lets it wither... which further turns it into a dysfunctional, nefarious place

• @moskov Dustin Moskovitz on x

  Several people saying “he'll just borrow”. I think that would be by far the biggest loan to an individual in history? And would require even more shares to collateralize. Not a cost free option for him and still likely to impact share price.

• @kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x

  Twitter activists: We need a CEO who isn't distracted with another job! Different Twitter activist: I'd like to run this company alongside my car business and my rocket ship business!

• @nameshiv @nameshiv on x

  The next time you think youre overreacting, remember that Elon Musk is really willing to pay $43 billion just to prevent people from laughing at him on Twitter

• @sg Sean Garrett🇱🇹🇺 🇦 on x

  I wonder why the PTSD of working in Twitter comms never seems to go away. It's a mystery.

• @film_girl Christina Warren on x

  Twitter has been my “home” on the internet for 15 years. It's my place. I just don't want my home to be destroyed.

• @rmac18 Ryan Mac on x

  Been trying to parse the management lesson in this, which seems to be that it's ok to intimidate and surveil the lowest level of workers for getting coffee? https://twitter.com/...

• @nic__carter Nic Carter on x

  I don't think the regime will allow Elon to control the most important media organization out there. Not if he bids $100 per share. It's not about money, it's about a corporate entity that is an outsourced and fully cooperative arm of the state.

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  Elon Musk cares very genuinely and deeply about freedom of speech for one person, and that person is Elon Musk https://twitter.com/...

• @stevekovach Steve Kovach on x

  Might as well stream this live on their IR site because it'll leak in real time anyway. https://twitter.com/...

• @obrien Chris O'Brien on x

  Given that Musk has publicly lied about having such funding before, this is a legitimate concern for the board before it wastes time and resources. It's also critical for everyone to know precisely how he would finance it.

• @alirayl Ali Rayl on x

  Elon: wtf did I just buy TERA: A modern cloud service, my man. What did you think you bought TERA: Oh and we hate that we've spent the last 9 months scoping and estimating and Jira-ing so we quit. We obfuscated the entire codebase on our way out. ggs!

• @obrien Chris O'Brien on x

  If I'm reading this filing correctly, the only thing he has sent so far is this “letter” and text. Twitter board should simply acknowledge receipt and ask him to send details of the financing he has secured to support such an offer in order for them to consider it seriously. http…

• @alirayl Ali Rayl on x

  Elon: okay but unsuspend Trump TERA: sooooo there's a scale problem here and that'll take down the service for 4 weeks Elon: ?! TERA: Too many tweets and likes and followers. We have to rehydrate the entire service and the only way to do it is while it's offline Elon: JFC

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  my tweets don't always hold up well but this one seems to be doing ok so far today https://twitter.com/...

• @davepell Dave Pell on x

  Elon Musk is Donald Trump with money. If he owns Twitter, I'm out.

• @jbarro Josh Barro on x

  Honestly that seems like a bizarre management approach. Shouldn't people be in meetings or doing individual work as appropriate for their job functions at a given time, rather than a company-wide shift? https://twitter.com/...

• @antoniogm @antoniogm on x

  If Elon takes over, there'll be a slew of left-wing Gabs and Parlers as the super-woke threaten to leave Twitter, they'll all fail like the right-wing versions did, and it'll be glorious to watch the “just build your own” people sulk and wail.

• @alirayl Ali Rayl on x

  Elon: produces product brief for Project Speech Freedom Twitter engineering resistance army: Okay man we'll start scoping this out <5 months later> TERA: Cool dude it's all in Jira epics and we'll have those initial string changes done in Q4 of next year Elon: JFC

• @mhbergen Mark Bergen on x

  Government Contractor CEO Plans Takeover of Media Service That Banned Leader of Party Expected to Win Next Elections https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @semil @semil on x

  No surprise that @benthompson has the most accurate & succinct reasoning for why Twitter should be taken private: “it is clear that the company's monetization approach just doesn't fit its market niche, but it's going to be impossible to rework that while on the public markets.”

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  Gonna be a tough town hall at Twitter today. Employees will have lots of legit questions, and management will be legitimately unable to answer them.

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  (local TV newscaster introducing this story) A new clown car just pulled into the gold mine ... and looks like it's a Tesla.

• @alexweprin Alex Weprin on x

  This is going to end with Elon Musk selling his entire stake on 4/20, isn't it?

• @hunterwalk @hunterwalk on x

  Twitter is already decentralized I mean, i see all of you get pwned here daily 🥁

• @evan_greer Evan Greer on x

  The fact we even have to worry about someone like Elon Musk just buying a social media platform that millions of people, especially journalists, artists, and activists, depend on to do their work shows that we have a fundamental problem: too few companies with too much power

• @safeselfdrive Jim McPherson on x

  “Twitter is like a public square— that I must own outright, privately.” - Elon Musk

• @tomgara Tom Gara on x

  I hope Elon credited the source of that quote, we wouldn't want an Elon plagiarism scandal on such an important day https://twitter.com/...

• @shiraovide Shira Ovide on x

  Remember that time Salesforce flirted with buying Twitter and Salesforce shareholders hated it and Salesforce gave up? Anyway, Tesla stock is down a bit this morning.

• @samro Sam Ro on x

  this is what being rich is all about https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @dbernstein David S. Bernstein on x

  I wonder what the SEC will think of his takeover bid of Twitter, after having punished him for making false claims on it about a takeover bid. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @russfrushtick Russ Frushtick on x

  he's going for the lord of frenzied flame ending https://twitter.com/...

• @manan @manan on x

  feel for Parag A. Dude isn't getting a break! https://twitter.com/...

• @qhardy Quentin Hardy on x

  I have to leave if Elon takes over. I'm not sure I can handle multi-colored letters

• @mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x

  Has the @Twitter account really not tweeted “Funding secured” yet? Come on, it's been hours.

• @elienyc Elie Mystal on x

  I'm not *really* worried about the racist white man buying this dumb platform because all the racist white man wants to do with it is make it easier for his friends to be racist. Which, like, they already are, all the time. And I make fun of them and they block me so whatever.

• @borthwick John Borthwick on x

  Truth. Twitter has always been a more powerful protocol than single, controlled product. https://twitter.com/...

• @bborrman Brandon on x

  I guess that's one way to make it look like you're not just walking away and this was all just one big trolling.

• @cityofthetown Tom Dotan on x

  This is exactly why I said seven years ago that the government should nationalize Twitter.

• @sternbergh Adam Sternbergh on x

  twitter shareholders right now https://twitter.com/...

• @emzanotti Emily Zanotti on x

  He's going to try to *actually own the libs* https://twitter.com/...

• @drjengunter Jennifer Gunter on x

  We should not have billionaires. They represent a complete failure of the system. https://twitter.com/...

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue

• @spotted Pete Fischer on x

  Today is my Twitter anniversary, 15 years! Pretty sure this guy is going to fuck it all up. https://twitter.com/...

• @dangillmor Dan Gillmor on x

  You don't have to agree with the Boot column — it's overwrought — to realize this framing is absurd. https://twitter.com/...

• @ingrahamangle Laura Ingraham on x

  Max Boot thinks democracy means controlling free speech. https://twitter.com/...

• @marshallk Marshall Kirkpatrick on x

  One of the most important things about Twitter is the broad array of micro-communities here. Scientists talking among themselves, farmers, all kinds of topical communities. It's really important that goings on at the global scale public sphere not mess up the micro communities.

• @maxboot Max Boot on x

  Jewish space laser lady thinks I'm a Communist. 🤣 https://twitter.com/...

• @mzhemingway Mollie on x

  Democracy requires attacks on the culture of free speech, more authoritarianism, says WP guy. https://twitter.com/...

• @timobrien Tim O'Brien on x

  Musk is offering $54.20 per share. Twitter's shares hit $70 less than a year ago. So Twitter's board may reject this - while Musk still gets to enjoy a public stunt.

• @joemillerjr Joe Miller on x

  Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter because he believes “free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” while Tesla denies critical journalists access to events etc... 🤔

• @daryrezvani @daryrezvani on x

  Men will literally offer to buy Twitter instead of taking care of their son named R2D2.

• @tweetsyall @tweetsyall on x

  which rich person of twitter do you wish would buy it instead (no need to be exactly as rich for the purposes of the prompt)? i'm going with cher