After an interminable recreation of will-he, gained’t-he, Elon Musk now really, formally owns Twitter. And on the order of the Delaware Court docket of Chancery, there are not any take-backs.
Musk’s ill-advised $44 billion, $54.20 per share provide considerably overvalued the corporate, which traded as little as $32.65 per share in July. That’s thanks partly to his personal vocal criticism of the corporate he now owns.
Regardless of his greatest efforts to exit the deal ― at one level tweeting a poop emoji at Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal ― Musk now has to really handle the corporate.
“It’s just like the figurative ‘the canine that caught the automotive’ now that he owns Twitter,” William Klepper, an skilled on company governance and a professor at Columbia Enterprise College, beforehand advised HuffPost. “He’ll have to offer the chief management wanted to take care of and develop the corporate. He can’t simply maintain it in his portfolio!”
Whereas there are considerably extra unknowns than knowns at this level, and Musk has a historical past of grand visions that may be gradual to materialize (or don’t pan out), right here’s what might change on the chicken app so many people like to hate.
Embracing Malcontent
Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has publicly indicated he’ll allow extra controversial posts on the platform. However outdoors of tweeting broad aphorisms, he’s been mild on specifics.
Issues may get difficult for Musk, whose wealth rises and falls with the worth of Tesla, a model that’s tightly linked to his public persona and will bear the brunt of shifting shopper sentiment if, say, Musk opens the floodgates to a bunch of white supremacists on Twitter.
The Tesla affect has a worrying geopolitical flip aspect. What occurs, as an example, if Russia asks Musk to silence Twitter dissent there, in alternate for entry to its uncommon earth reserves, which Tesla wants for battery manufacturing?
Evan Greer, deputy director at Combat for the Future, a digital rights nonprofit, had an identical concern.
“Content material moderation selections on platforms as consequential as Twitter needs to be made fastidiously and thru a human rights framework,” Greer mentioned in an earlier emailed assertion. “Now, there’s a single human with the ability to make adjustments to Twitter’s speech insurance policies. That’s not a boon at no cost expression, it makes a mockery of it.”
“It was an issue when Twitter answered to Wall Avenue,” they continued. “However it’s actually not higher if it’s run by one billionaire.”
Un-Banning The Banned
After years of utilizing Twitter to unfold aggressive and violent rhetoric, the corporate completely banned Donald Trump on Jan. 8, 2021, days after the then-president used the platform to incite a violent mob to assault the U.S. Capitol.
Musk needs to rescind Trump’s ban specifically ― and the coverage of everlasting bans generally.
The entrepreneur advised the Monetary Occasions in Might that he believes perma-bans fracture dialogue and undermine belief within the platform whereas doing nothing to encourage civility. Everlasting bans, he mentioned, needs to be reserved just for bots and spam accounts.
“That doesn’t imply that someone will get to say no matter they need to say,” Musk mentioned. “If they are saying one thing that’s unlawful or in any other case simply damaging to the world, then maybe there needs to be a timeout, a brief suspension, or that individual tweet needs to be made invisible or have very restricted traction.”
“However I believe perma-bans simply essentially undermine belief in Twitter as a city sq. the place everybody can voice their opinion,” he added.
“I believe [perma-banning Trump] was a morally unhealthy determination, to be clear. And silly within the excessive.”
Bye, Bye Birdie
At one level, Musk reportedly deliberate to ax 75% of Twitter’s 7,500 staff. He’s since advised staffers that isn’t true, however job cuts nonetheless appear inevitable.
In consequence, Twitter staff are prone to begin in search of the exits in the event that they haven’t already. That features CEO Agrawal, whom Musk appears to have soured on and who stands to make $60 million if he’s fired.
Twitter may quickly discover itself missing the fitting personnel to construct Musk’s imaginative and prescient ― not to mention keep what the corporate has already constructed.
Income, Income, Income
In an open letter Thursday, Musk addressed Twitter’s most vital customers: advertisers. Promoting comprised 89% of Twitter’s $5.08 billion income in 2021, and with out advertisers’ buy-in, he’s doomed until he can diversify income streams ― and shortly.
Musk’s acquisition deal additionally saddled Twitter with $13 billion in debt, making it much more pressing to squeeze the platform for added revenue.
Manufacturers don’t need to be related to the poisonous content material Musk has toyed with permitting again on the platform, touchdown him in a fragile place from the outset.
He tried to move that off Thursday, telling advertisers he needs Twitter “to be probably the most revered promoting platform on this planet,” and that Twitter “can’t develop into a free-for-all hellscape, the place something might be mentioned with no penalties!”
How he intends to attain that whereas additionally stress-free the platform’s moderation insurance policies stays to be seen, although Musk’s pitch to traders suggests he’ll go all-in on subscription charges.
A replica of Musk’s pitch deck obtained by The New York Occasions exhibits he needs promoting to account for lower than half the corporate’s income by 2028, at which level he expects the corporate to generate $26.4 billion a 12 months. Extra income will primarily be generated by subscriptions, adopted by a yet-to-be-seen funds enterprise, and information licensing.