Twitter says "yes" to Elon Musk . In a radical turnaround, the company's board of directors accepted the Tesla owner's $ 44 billion offer in what is one of the largest leverage buyouts of a publicly traded company.
With the deal, which is expected to close by 2022, Twitter is preparing to leave Wall Street , thus becoming a private company wholly owned by the visionary billionaire.
With the acquisition of Twitter, the richest man in the world gets his hands on one of the most influential social networks promising to make it the platform of free speech par excellence. A platform on which many Republicans hope to soon find Donald Trump , kicked out after the assault on Congress on January 6. The tycoon, in the meantime, however, is already paying a hefty bill for the acquisition of Twitter: his social Truth , with its limited audience and struggling with a manager escape, sinks on Wall Street and risks disappearing.
Musk's self-described "absolutist of free speech" control of Twitter is agitating many observers. There are those who fear that with Tesla's boss at the helm of Twitter it could become an “arena of hatred.” And others are convinced that his “anti-censorship” crusade will not solve the problems that have plagued the social network for years.
Elon Musk has not yet clarified in detail what he will do with Twitter. Beyond wanting to delist the company , Tesla's boss has not yet revealed his moves, simply saying that Twitter needs to be "transformed" and that it should be based on an open-source algorithm . What kind of leadership he intends to inspire is unclear, although in the latest tweets he seems to hint that his role model will not be Bill Gates .
The Microsoft founder has in fact recently ended up in Musk's crosshairs who made fun of him for betting against Tesla, at the same time portraying himself as a champion of the fight against climate change. Even Twitter employees are wondering about the impact that Musk will have on society, worried by the billionaire-visionary's desire to dismantle content moderation policies and, above all, to proceed with the de-listing of the company by removing it from the public spotlight and keeping for himself the decisions on how to proceed.
The frustration of employees is clearly evident in private chats, where the silence of the top management complains that they have left them in the dark.
Musk managed, therefore, to convince shareholders of the goodness of his offer of 54.20 dollars per share , a level - he explained during a whirlwind of meetings - that the management of Twitter alone will never be able to reach.
With investors on his side and above all greater clarity on financing for the transaction - he raised $ 46.5 billion in commitments for the transaction - Musk has softened the position of the board of directors, initially opposed to the acquisition so much that approve an anti-climbing poison pill.
The repeated contacts in recent days with the members of the board have then removed the last obstacles paving the way for an understanding, with which Musk seems ready to revolutionize the social media sector as he did with the automotive industry.
Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has already launched the first digs, insinuating that now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter, China has acquired a sphere of influence.
"Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain some leverage in the town square?" Bezos tweeted in response to a New York Times reporter who pointed out that Tesla is dependent on China for its large. market and lithium batteries.
(Unioneonline / vl)