To save their job, nothing less than a version history.
If they go full Xanadu hypermedia, promote high.
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It seems like the deal is on to complete Friday. FT reports yesterday (source)
Elon Musk has confirmed on a video call with his advisers that he intends to close his $44bn acquisition of Twitter on Friday, potentially bringing an end to the turbulent acquisition process, according to people briefed about the matter.
In another sign that the deal will close by the end of the week, Muskâs lawyers at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom sent paperwork to equity investors in the deal, according to two investors and a person close to the Tesla boss.
The article also reports that the White House denied that the deal has to be reviewed for national security purposes. This would eliminate the triple bank shot theory Musk decided to go forward and close because he anticipated the review would stop the deal.
Barronâs reports the deal is happening and hints in Betteridge law fashion that Musk magic wonât work (source)
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What happens to existing lawsuits against Twitter for past banning, etc.?
The company is still liable. If Musk continues the current managementâs defense of such suits, will judges continue to give Twitter âOK if done in the name of leftismâ Section 230 rulings?
Would Musk be subject to deposition and testimony?
If Musk does not defend, does all heck break out with further lawsuits?
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I am looking foward to GETTING PAID BY MUSK. Bragging rights at Thanksgiving table for sure!
(May âforgetâ to disclose it will be for my
single (1) share of TWTR)!
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The latest stunt is a short video clip of Elon entering the Twitter HQ carrying what appears to be a (not a kitchen) sink. Of course he tweeted this
And his bio is now updated to âChief Twitâ
This has all the signs of being an epic troll
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Will this election cycle October surprise be reinstating Trumpâs twitter access before the election?
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âChief Twit.â Hilarious; thank you. I love to get my news here.
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My intuition is that it is a short term victory (dare say âtreat)â for Conservatives and Libertarians (6 months to a year) but long term âtrickâ. Powerful cannot handle the Truth, so abuse will rise up after âreformâ.
So 4th estate will thrive outside fake free speech âplatformsâ in millions of blogs like this one, and perhaps organized by https://encyclosphere.org/ .
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Elon Musk Buys Twitter, Fires Top Executives
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Where does Mr. Musk find the time? To mere mortals, it would seem that running the worldâs first electric automobile company would be more than a full time job. Or being Chief Engineer for Spacex. Or developing a global internet system. Or being a voice of reason on Biden*'s war in the Ukraine. Or dating hot women. Yet he still has enough time on his hands to take over Twitter.
Where Mr. Musk find the time is a complete mystery to me â even if he happens to be one of those rare individuals who needs hardly any sleep. In reality, are there several Musks?
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Where does Mr. Musk find the time? To mere mortals, it would seem that running the worldâs first electric automobile company would be more than a full time job. Or being Chief Engineer for Spacex. Or developing a global internet system. Or being a voice of reason on Biden*'s war in the Ukraine. Or dating hot women. Yet he still has enough time on his hands to take over Twitter.
This is a good leading question. My speculation is that he does none of the listed. His only real responsibility is âhiring & firingâ. Then he allocates a solid block of time for each of these enterprises, one-at-a-time, in round-robin fashion and spends his time with the top people on the top problem. The main purpose for him is not to solve the problem, but to monitor the key people and decide if it is time to âhire & fireâ again.
Beria âTask No. 1â-like operation:
EDIT: Except of âdating hot womenâ â this he likely does mostly himself. Again, not unlike BeriaâŚ
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Indeed! With Spacex firing off rockets at a never-before-seen rate and StarLink building scores of satellites, clearly there have to be armies of competent motivated employees in each organization making sure that issues are addressed and opportunities seized long before they get elevated to Muskâs level.
But that raises another issue â How is he so effective at finding those people and promoting them into the right slots? Anyone who has been involved in hiring decisions in a large corporation knows how painfully slow & inefficient the process often is â made even worse nowadays by the efforts of Human Resources to ensure that the selected person has to be chosen for reasons other than competence. If Musk has cracked that riddle, he could take over the world!
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A financial analysis of âstakeholder capitalismâ at Twitter:
Twitter departed the world of public companies just shy of its 9th birthday. To the question of who won and who lost, the answer should be obvious. From a start of $45 on 11/7/13 to Elonâs buy this week at $54.20, the shareholder made 20.4%. Thatâs cumulative. 2.1% per year.
Over the same stretch, the S&P 500 earned 157.4%, 11.1% per year. While revenues at Twitter grew from $665 million at year-end 2013 (post-IPO) to an annual run rate of $5.2 billion at 6/30, an impressive 26% per year, expenses exceeded revenues in 7 out of 9 years. Losses.
Cumulatively Twitter lost $771m but did produce positive $6.5B in cumulative cash from operations. Impressive, until considering a mind-boggling $5.2B in ânon-cashâ share-based comp as most of that, the always pesky SBC that CEOs/CFOs insist investors ignore. Adjusted EBITDA.
After the 2013 IPO, Twitter had 570 million shares outstanding which ballooned to 771 million at 6/30. The acquisition immediately vested additional insider option and RSU shares, which brought the total share count acquired by Elon and a few close pals to 812 million shares.
For those keeping track at home, thatâs an increase in the share count of 42%, dilution to the original non-insider shareholders of 30%, or a painfully expensive 2.9% per year. Management even decided it was a good idea to launch repurchases in 4Q 2020, despite a profit void.
Spending $245 million that quarter, another $931 million in '01 and a whopping $2.2 billion in Q1 2022 alone (sales were $1.2B), repos totaled $3.3 billion over 18 months that saw Twitter produce no profit. What did the company have to show for the repos? Huge share reduction?
Nope. The share count shrank from 780 million shares to all of 771 million outstanding, a miniscule 1.1% reduction. For that, Twitter spent 7.4% of its final $44 billion market cap at acquisition. It would be hard to believe except the financial statements generally donât lie.
It seems the Twitter brass perfected not the production of cash for the owners but the production of shares for themselves. Excluding insider ownership at the time of the IPO, the 242m increase in shares outstanding were not created via secondary offerings. SBC gone wild.
Those 242m shares, again, 30% of the company over 9 years, were those given to insiders for which they paid the company $1.7 billion upon exercise but which were worth $13.1 billion. Not a bad gig if you can get it. At least the shareholder made something, if only 2.1% a year.
My bet would be the new birdkeeper, the one who shelled out nearly $26 billion of his own money (including 9.6% already owned), joined by friends like Larry Ellison and Qatr with another $5.2B cash and $13 billion in new debt from the banksters, is already planning the IPO.
via https://twitter.com/ChrisBloomstran/status/1586504038933299200
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Seems like legal professionals will have a few good years ahead, given all the lawsuits surrounding the Twitter terminations.
(source)
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For knowingly shadow banning opposing views to âdeep state narrativesâ, the Twitter executives earned steel handcuffs.
Other big tech abusers need to witness a good case study of justice â so they can properly recalibrate their moral compasses.
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Well⌠if Elon plays his cards right, he might finally learn a thing or two about managing Twitter. But heâs got to hurry, only 30 days left.
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