Elon Musk

Musk, the C.E.O. of Tesla and the richest man on earth, plans to take the social-media company private, and has said that he wants Twitter to adhere more ...

And I think people are recognizing that Elon Musk has created a lot of value for his companies by being unhinged on Twitter. And I think there are imitators, and I think we’re kind of early in the game. If you are the richest person in the world, and annoying, and you constantly play a computer game, and you get a lot of enjoyment and sense of identity from that game, maybe a little addicted, then at some point you might have some suggestions for improvements in the game.” At one level, this is a more personal account of his desire to buy Twitter. And then there is the more financial, or business, account, which you have just explained. But, at the same time, it almost seems like it’s impossible to disaggregate those two things, unless you think that all of his behavior is some elaborate performance or something, which I don’t think anyone really believes. He might say, “Look, I get so much value out of this direct access to the public.” Owning that direct access to the public—owning that thing that creates so much value for Elon Musk and Tesla—it has to be valuable somehow, whether it’s by increasing the value that it creates for Tesla, or whether it’s by finding a way to monetize the value that it creates for sports stars and celebrities and Donald Trump and lots of other people. It’s not obvious how the company would, but if you’re sitting on top of a thing that can create that much value, surely, if you’re really smart then you can extract some value out of it. And those expectations are probably helped by having a charismatic, noisy founder who makes a lot of jokes online and is sort of a science-fiction character himself, and portrays himself as a science-fiction character, and who appeals to people who like that by making jokes. The value of his company is enhanced by his being a very strange public figure on Twitter, and so he clearly sees a lot of value in tweeting, and probably wants to own that for himself. And the stock-market value of Tesla, which makes Elon Musk the richest person in the world, comes from a lot of extreme optimism about Tesla’s future ability to make more cars and become the dominant player in car-making as cars become more electric. And so the value of these companies in the market is largely derived from expectations around how much money they’ll make in the future, as opposed to how much money they’ve made in the past. It’s not obvious to me how, if he bought Twitter, he would then be better able to get his message out, or better able to tell a story in a way that is good for Tesla and good for his economic interests. So how much do you connect Tesla’s worth to Elon Musk as a person and the way he orients himself toward the world, especially on Twitter? To talk about Musk and what the future holds for his newest acquisition, I spoke by phone with Matt Levine, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist who has been comprehensively reporting on and analyzing this story over the past month in his newsletter.

There is every chance that Twitter's board will have extracted an improved offer or terms from Elon Musk as an announcement on a deal is expected later on ...

According to the media outlet, both sides met on Sunday to discuss the proposal - and the social network "is more likely than before to seek to negotiate". Musk argues that the social network needs to be taken private in order to grow and become a genuine platform for free speech. He has offered to buy the social network for $43bn (£33.5bn) and placed the right to uphold free speech at the forefront of his argument for a deal, accusing Twitter of failing its users to date.

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.

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.

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.

Musk has led his companies to success through a variety of means. There are a few specific rules he rigorously enforces that have worked well for his ...

Musk has also made his belief in the free flow of information clear through other public means. As far as big meetings go, Musk believes that they’re largely a waste of time and that they should be infrequent. The rules, as detailed by Your Tango, often pertain to meetings, productivity and the free flow of information.

Turn of events comes days after the billionaire unveiled his $43 billion bid for the social-media company.

Mr. Musk said he sees no way Twitter management can get the stock to his offer price on its own, given the issues in the business and a persistent inability to correct them. Mr. Musk has indicated that if the current bid fails, he could sell his stake, which totals more than 9%. Mr. Musk already has said he is considering taking his bid directly to shareholders by launching a tender offer. The firm last bought Twitter shares in February and owns about 950,000 overall, which accounts for about 11% of its portfolio. “I’m not sure what that can be at this stage besides finding a higher bid," he said. Twitter had been expected to rebuff the offer, which Mr. Musk made April 14 without saying how he would pay for it, and put in place a so-called poison pill to block him from increasing his stake. Remove some to bookmark this image. The company is attempting to do so again at this year’s annual meeting set for May 25. He also pledged to solve the free-speech issues he sees as plaguing the platform and the country more broadly, whether his bid succeeds or not, they said. “He is the catalyst to deliver strong operating performance at Twitter." Minneapolis-based Thrivent has a roughly 0.4% stake in Twitter worth $160 million and is also a Tesla shareholder. The conversations between the two sides were expected to focus on issues including what Mr. Musk would pay should an agreed deal fall apart before being consummated. Assuming there isn’t a last-minute snag, the deal is expected to be announced after the market closes Monday, if not sooner.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk celebrating the opening of the carmaker's Shanghai plant on Jan. 7, 2020. Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images. As the world sorts out the ...

Early this year Tesla also opened a showroom in China’s Xinjiang province, where the government is accused of carrying out an assimilation program and operating internment camps for ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups. Tesla began building Model Ys and Model 3s last week, under strict protocols that included having workers temporarily live at the plant and not returning to their homes. It seems to have worked as local companies including BYD and NIO have become fast-growing rivals to Tesla in that market with a range of attractive, compelling new electric models. Previously, global giants including General Motors, Volkswagen, Ford and Toyota were required to partner with local Chinese companies, who typically owned a majority stake in joint-venture factories. While the country previously had no influence over Twitter, “that may have just changed” with Musk’s deal, Forsythe said in a tweet. In 2021 China became Tesla’s highest source of vehicle production and likely its second-biggest source of sales.

Amazon founder raises concerns after Tesla boss strikes $44bn deal to buy social media platform.

The Musk takeover has been unexpected and controversial among Twitter employees. The tweet said China may now have a way of holding leverage over “My own answer to this question is probably not.

ELON Musk can at times be inscrutable, and his politics are elusive, which has made it somewhat difficult to determine exactly what the billionaire would do ...