Nobody can know everything even apparent geniuses.
The ongoing Elon Twitter saga: "insert demographic" melts down
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Everyone is wrong on Twitter.
Caporegime
That was kind of my point. He hasn't run anything like a social media company and they are a world away from the other companies he has made billions from.
Thats arrogance. Also, plenty of the richest people in the world have lost billions and made even more. People make mistakes. People who have made billion dollar companies have run them into the ground afterwards. Its not a simple matter of man that person is clearly an idiot.
Hes definitely smart. The issue is that smart doesn't win you every battle.
So you think he came in and intentionally burnt the house down? He is quickly learning the issues of running a social media company and making a mess of it as he goes. He didn't back out because he thought he could come in, make sweeping changes and his investment would be fine. He clearly didn't understand enough about Twitter and its issues and decision making to be able to do that well.
Hindsight is 20:20.
I think Musk is a massive pillock like almost every other "celebrity" out there but I don't know why people push this stupid narrative that hes not intelligent. Arrogant, overconfident, fragile ego, big mouth etc etc fine, he is all those things but you do not get where he is without be very smart. It simply does not happen.
Caporegime
Because they know how twitter work because they made it work.
Elon is a user first, and CEO second having just stepped through the door.
Your only angle is "they got a grudge". But you don't see Elon can be wrong.
Caporegime
I don't think he came in intentionally to burn the house down, however, it does come across that way.
Existing CEO? You are fired, not in new position over a transition period, just fired.
The board? All fired!
Half the work force, some that are critical to make it work. Fired.
Anyone who mocks me? Banned!
He doesn't seem to care if he fails, he probably doesn't, but he is now torn because he can't let this fail as his ego won't let him to he also want to give the 2 fingers to the previous people who made him go through with the purchase.
It's very funny to see if not for all the innocent people in the middle who lost their jobs.
Commissario
Because of his actions so far in regards to twitter?
He's almost done a Truss on it, he's laid people off that he didn't know what they did or how important they are to the core business (and has had to hire lots of them back), he's wrecked the relationship with advertisers (to the point he's now got SpaceX buying large amounts of advertising to make up that loss*), he's shown he doesn't have a clue about how it makes money, he doesn't have a clue about why certain things were done the way they were, and he's messed up the verification to the point he's back at square one with him having to reinvent the idea of it so that it's going back to what it was before he decided he could sell it for a few dollars to every troll and scammer out there.
*If reports are accurate, and if they are that's a potential conflict of interest/SEC/FTC issue.
I haven't made an assertion on him being right or wrong on what's been discussed between him and some Twitter employees, everyone here has decided he's wrong just on the basis that he's Elon Musk
Nothing is really messed up, the advertisers pulling out is largely political, some of them are competitors to Tesla, another is Pfizer so I'd assume another conflict of interest; there's no reason to pull out of Twitter given no rules have changed on language use?
You're failing to understand that Elon Musk didn't buy Twitter to keep it exactly the same as it is, he is going to try new things.
Caporegime
We concluded he is wrong because of what I already said, it is kinda of obvious to everyone else 1- he just stepped through he door and 2) he is new to running a social media platform.
The chances of the opposite being true is much lower. People look at the possibility and made a call.
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Soldato
i'm fairly certain you've misunderstood this.
he tried to pull out, which would have just been a $1 billion charge, but he couldn't. he made them an offer that he couldn't refuse, and so was forced to pay the full $44 billion. he tried a PR move in the end when it was obvious he was about to lose, so rather than actually be forced to buy twitter, he "decided he wanted it as it was so good" etc etc.
He didn't chose to pay either $1 billion or $44 billion, the $1 bil was never an option once he'd made his ridiculous offer.
Caporegime
I am sure that makes sense but it doesn't to me.
"He tried to pull out, which would have just been 1 $1 billion charge"...so he could then with the £1billion settlement?
"but he couldn't" because???? You just said he could?
"He (Elon) made them (Twitter) an offer that he (Elon) couldn't refuse?"
He can't refuse himself? What?
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Soldato
Check again.
I never said he could...
I said he tried to pull out (which would have been a charge of 1 billion had he been able to), he couldn't, he was forced to buy the whole thing for 44 billion.
The reason Elon was forced, is because Elon made a twitter an offer, that Elon couldn't refuse and get out of.
It was that stupid.
Caporegime
I am sure it makes sense in your head but you are still not explaining it.
If he couldn't then why a £1 billion option? If it weren't an option? why the billion? The contract stated that he had to go through or the get our clause was £1 billion wasn't it? Else whats the point of a get out clause?
You still haven't explain why he can't refuse himself?
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Twitter is the modern equivalent of a toilet wall
Caporegime
I never thought of it like that but it's so fitting.
Commissario
You've really bought into the Musk is great at everything thing
He didn't want to buy twitter, he was stupid enough to make an offer largely as a joke at an inflated price BUT also sign a contract that compelled him to honour that offer unless specific conditions were met having ignored the advice of his (then) lawyers.
He then tried to get out of the contract by going to court wracking up large additional expenses for himself before he realised (or someone explained to him) that if he kept fighting he was going to end up buying twitter with an even bigger legal bill, or buying twitter entirely out of his own money (several banks had contracts with him that were about to expire in regards to loans for it)...
The advertisers have been pulling out because he can't/won't make basic assurances as to how the site will run, and then gutted the teams that make sure that a site is considered a reasonable risk for the advertisers...when you've got rid of such minor departments as legal, compliance, and child safety the advertisers tend to not be too happy with the thought that they could be running adverts alongside highly illegal content, let alone just content that goes against the brand images they've often spent decades and billions building up.
In case you missed it, he was in a call with a bunch of the advertisers trying to reassure them, but because he couldn't give them really basic answers they were actively cancelling planned advertising during the call, maybe if he hadn't dumped most of the Twitter advertising relations/bookings teams it might have gone better...but then again probably not as he doesn't seem to have understood why the advertisers were nervous or why Twitter had the policies it had in regards to things like the little moderation it had (not because Twitter wanted to waste money on it, but because it's both legally required and needed to make the service somewhat appealing to the ones paying the bills, aka the advertisers).
Despite all the wittering about it being "political" it really isn't, except maybe in so much as Unilever and Disney are unlikely to be happy with their adverts running next to things like the Proud Boys discussing how they want to go on an urban safari, or some Trump/Jones alike preaching how drinking bleach can cure ADHD.
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Also in case you missed it, advertisers often put adverts on "competing" platforms of one type or another, you get adverts for HBO, Disney, ITV etc on C5 and Sky here, you get Sky adverts on all the channels that take adverts.
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Soldato
i'm not sure how else i can explain it.
what we're told is that he made an offer that went along the lines of "I will 100% be buying twitter, and if you were to accept my offer, I agree I will not be able to pull out of it and you can force me to buy it, with the only reason i'd be allowed to walk away is that if I find that twitter have been hiring prostitutes and use child labour and the twitter bird is not actually real, and if that's the case, i pay just $1 billion to walk away".
he (elon) tried to walk away, and claim he found evidence of child labour, but in the end, it wasn't true and he had no evidence, so had to pay full price.
i cannot explain it any clearer.
as much as he'd like to have paid the $1 billion and walk away, in reality it was never a choice. he had to pay $44 billion because of the offer he himself made.
Caporegime
Quick google....
Musk's Twitter deal includes a $1B termination fee
Elon Musk must pay a $1B termination fee if he doesn't go through with his $44B acquisition of the social network, as will Twitter under specific circumstances.
techcrunch.com
"If Musk requires an exit from this agreement for any reason, it will come at a not-so-inconsequential price, but not one that’s unexpected for a deal of this size. In other words, if Musk’s financing falls through, Twitter gets $1 billion if the deal is off."
and it also says
"The filing also notes that the deal could be terminated if it doesn’t close by 5 PM PT on October 24, 2022. However, it does lay out a provision to extend the termination date for an additional six months if needed to meet select closing conditions related to antitrust law, foreign investments laws or other governmental actions that could impact the agreement from closing during that time frame."
It appears he could have just let it lapse and pay £1 billion....
I dunno, either way...it is clear he made a mistake, a very expensive one.
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Soldato
You're missing a very important set of events inbetween all this. Musk did (try to) pull out. It was rejected by twitter, and they took him to court to force it, something they could do, due to Elon's own terms he set when he made his initial offer.
The court case was about to conclude and it is widely accepted that it was going to conclude that Elon had to buy twitter and couldn't walk away.
Even at the last minute, after Elon said "deals back on I'm buying twitter again in a few days", twitter still continued with the court case.
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