Elon makes all-cash offer to take Twitter private

343,088 Views | 2839 Replies | Last: 2 days ago by OldArmy71
Swan Song
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AG
I'm wondering how many libs are embarrassed to drive their Teslas right about now.
thirdcoast
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AG
Musk will have to battle the FCC and SEC on one hand, and Larry Fink/Soros on the other. Doubt he ends up with the keys to Twitter. Only question is will he fight back or tuck tail with all the "right winger" labels and attacks on his brand?

Blackrock is essentially a US gov entity and Vanguard & State Street will fall in line with Dems and BOD. So Musk can only hope to expose the corrupt TWTR puppet masters and spark interest in an alternative platform.
BuddysBud
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This is a fascinating story of tyrants vs freedom in our investment markets. If the big fascist investment firms, using our money, protect ESG against their fiduciary duties then everyone with a 401k or IRA with these firms have been harmed. A greedy lawyer could earn billions in a class action case against Vanguard.
I Sold DeSantis Lifts
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Elon musk will be the next president of texas
hph6203
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AG
I hope the Plan B is a privacy first, anti-ad open marketplace phone, that charges transaction fees to app developers just high enough to cover service costs. It would be an amazing eff you to the current players in the marketplace.

-End to end encrypted messenger
-Default VPN on the browser that is run on RAM storage
-Ad blocking browser by default.
-Transparent promotion on the App Store
-Radical transparency overall

There's actually a long list. It could be the biggest middle finger to Google, Apple, and the social media sites and it would be awesome. Have no idea if it would be successful, but it would be awesome.
MarkTwain
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Well Vanguard is damn sure gambling with other people's money, a 10% stake in Twitter a chunk, and if Musk were to up his ante or double his stake for leverage, Vanguard can't call his raise without some major blowback, and then Twitter panics and Poison Pills itself to liquidate Musk's shares, the stock hits the floor along with Vanguards 10% and people's retirements. If Vanguard dumps last minute just before the Pill then red flags on insider trading blow up and them dumping 10% would counteract the pill and the poison pill becomes a popcorn fart and Musk ends up with Twitter anyway. Musk is in a very good position because he knows what the river card is. Musk could take the hickey but Vanguard cannot, they would be done for when the lawsuits finish with them.
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience" - Mark Twain
BuffsAg47
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Social media is cancer no matter who owns it.
BusterAg
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zoneag said:

hph6203 said:

Engineers are populated with autists. He can find plenty that would want to work at Twitter.

Step 1: Remove disinformation labeling.
Step 2: Stop permabans and move to suspensions. Don't even have to change moderation policies drastically.
Step 3: Fix monetization.
Step 4: Transparency in algorithm/moderation.
Step 5: Culture change.

Won't even realize it's happened until half of your pronoun people have disappeared and you look around wondering what to call people in the third person. The first cull would be voluntary if the sale goes through.


Oh yeah there would be mass resignations of Twits if he buys the company. If you don't work for a big tech company it's hard to grasp what a collection of limp wristed betas work at these places. Whiny and entitled doesn't even come close to describing these titty babies. If we don't have enough vegan options for the free catered lunch every day they shriek on Slack about how horrible things are getting. Meditation rooms, bidets in the bathrooms, everyone telling you their pronouns. I get a kick out of it regularly.
Twitter currently has a permanent work from home policy for most employees. If / when people quit, he can replace them from pretty much anywhere else in the world.

I would bring everyone in for an onboarding session of about 6 - 12 months, but that would be hosted in Austin, or maybe Rayleigh or somewhere similar. Hell, maybe even Orlando just to poke a stick in someone's eye.

But then, they can go back to wherever they want to live, as long as they keep their work standards up.
The main point is the work from home structure will make backfilling engineers not as difficult as before. The pool of talent is bigger, and people that coded in SF but left because of the crappy culture there will be interested in a job. It should make the culture change job a lot easier.

I would probably have one big company wide meeting to describe why freedom of speech and decency are important, and assure people that all views will be treated equal, including very progressive views on whatever. Whatever LGBFSDAFASQ+ programs are in place stay in place, etc. Not trying to change people, or ask them to change their values, just trying to make the net of acceptable messaging wider and applicable to a broader audience. But after that, leave the engineers alone. Let them work, don't press the issue of the moderation changes.

But the major focus is in the moderation department. There, you have a training about free speech, and get everyone to either sign a promise that they are going to support the new mission of the company, or be terminated. That changes very fast, like in 2 months. Most of those people will quit anyways, but you have to make the stragglers understand that they will be held to a higher standard than the engineers due to the sensitivity of their position.

Don't hire anyone to come work in SF. Just put on a hiring freeze there due to high costs of living.

As the group of people in SF dwindle, most will give in or quit.

It might take 4 years for a full culture change, but the work from home will make it easier.
BusterAg
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Swan Song said:

I'm wondering how many libs are embarrassed to drive their Teslas right about now.
I was just telling my wife that now would be a great time to start searching for a used one on autotrader, but it will be a ***** to drive it back 250 miles at a time from SF.
sharpdressedman
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sicandtiredTXN said:

Well Vanguard is damn sure gambling with other people's money, a 10% stake in Twitter a chunk, and if Musk were to up his ante or double his stake for leverage, Vanguard can't call his raise without some major blowback, and then Twitter panics and Poison Pills itself to liquidate Musk's shares, the stock hits the floor along with Vanguards 10% and people's retirements. If Vanguard dumps last minute just before the Pill then red flags on insider trading blow up and them dumping 10% would counteract the pill and the poison pill becomes a popcorn fart and Musk ends up with Twitter anyway. Musk is in a very good position because he knows what the river card is. Musk could take the hickey but Vanguard cannot, they would be done for when the lawsuits finish with them.
Good points, all. I sense that EM has fully gamed this situation, and he has enough money to overcome all but the manufactured interference of the leftist alphabet government entities.
medwriter
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BuffsAg47 said:

Social media is cancer no matter who owns it.

If it exists as a truly unbiased source, it's not social media and more a voice of the people in general, IMHO. Texags "could" be construed as social media although I certainly wouldn't classify it as such.
Swan Song
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AG
I know this girl will be doing a deep dive today into the current holdings of all the mutual funds I own in my 401K.
nortex97
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Musk quite likely wants to use AI long term to run the algorithms/decide what is blocked as false/pornographic/illegal. Losing the leftist fruitcakes to quit vs. get fired obviously is just a feature, not a glitch.

It is sort of interesting to consider, when one weighs his assertion that this isn't about the money to him, but the principles, that at some point AI might be able to game out how to go about a hostile takeover like this, assuming a very defensive reaction to an offer from someone like Elon. It's probably not all that much more complicated than getting a computer to drive a car down I-35 safely with all of the nuts on the road nearby.
aggiehawg
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BusterAg said:

aggiehawg said:

Quote:

A $60 / share offer probably kicks Musk out of the running. But that means someone has to come up with ~$45B for a loser company. That's a hard pill to swallow.
Does it? Taking a company private restricts the number of shareholders but it doesn't limit it to only one.
This is a confusing post to me.

Any competing tender offer would most likely be for a controlling position, probably all of it. Musk's offer is for 100% of the company.

I guess a competing offer might be just enough to secure enough votes to deny Musk's offer, but Musk would probably sell and move on at that point.


My assumption is that you were saying Musk doesn't have the liquidity to better that offer. If he doesn't, he can bring in others to make up the difference is what I meant.
MarkTwain
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Looks like Thoma Bravo is considering making a move to buy Twitter

Thoma Bravo is trying to unload Barracuda to KKR for 4 billion currently
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience" - Mark Twain
YouBet
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Swan Song said:

I know this girl will be doing a deep dive today into the current holdings of all the mutual funds I own in my 401K.


You are going to find a lot of Big Tech stocks.
captkirk
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agdaddy04 said:

Yes that seems weird. Or are they betting on Elon winning?
I wouldn't bet against it
richardag
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YouBet said:

Swan Song said:

I know this girl will be doing a deep dive today into the current holdings of all the mutual funds I own in my 401K.
You are going to find a lot of Big Tech stocks.
Depends on the mutual fund and its stated objectives. Growth funds yes, balanced funds some, income funds not so much, tax free munis none.
Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep.”
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787
Demosthenes81
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I would love moving Twitter HQ to Cotulla.
Seven and three are ten, not only now, but forever. There has never been a time when seven and three were not ten, nor will there ever be a time when they are not ten. Therefore, I have said that the truth of number is incorruptible and common to all who think. — St. Augustine
. . .
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aggiehawg
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Sooo, stupid.
BMX Bandit
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For those that wisely stay off twitter, here's the poison pill

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/twitter-adopts-limited-duration-shareholder-rights-plan-enabling-all-shareholders-to-realize-full-value-of-company-301526627.html
BusterAg
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AG
This has zero impact on a 100%, all cash offer? Right?

If Elon owns all the stock, which shareholders are going to buy the discounted stock. Elonwould be the only shareholder.
MarkTwain
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This is going to blowback in their face when the stock tanks and he gets it cheaper. Vanguard's investors are likely freaking out. This could affect millions of 401k accounts.

They chose to pull this when the markets are closed hoping to have some lag time before the reaction one way or another really impacts the bottom line
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience" - Mark Twain
bigcat22
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Board needs to be voted out.
will25u
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Can someone explain in common terms? I read the link BMX posted, but am not 100% sure I know what it means.

If someone buys more than 15% of the total stock, this kicks in. But how does that affect the offer to buy 100% at $54.20?

And what options does this give/take away from the BOD or EM?
Sea Speed
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These people are sick. So addicted to controlling the narrative and information that they would rather burn down the institutions than allow people to have the free flow of information.
bthotugigem05
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The dilution is the killer, they can just create more shares to prevent Elon getting enough shares to get 100% control.
aggiehawg
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Quote:

The Rights Plan is similar to other plans adopted by publicly held companies in comparable circumstances. Under the Rights Plan, the rights will become exercisable if an entity, person or group acquires beneficial ownership of 15% or more of Twitter's outstanding common stock in a transaction not approved by the Board. In the event that the rights become exercisable due to the triggering ownership threshold being crossed, each right will entitle its holder (other than the person, entity or group triggering the Rights Plan, whose rights will become void and will not be exercisable) to purchase, at the then-current exercise price, additional shares of common stock having a then-current market value of twice the exercise price of the right.

The Rights Plan will expire on April 14, 2023.
Uhm? Been a long time since I was up to date on securities laws, but that white knight issue could be problematical.
Definitely Not A Cop
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Sea Speed said:

These people are sick. So addicted to controlling the narrative and information that they would rather burn down the institutions than allow people to have the free flow of information.


I mean, doesn't burning it down cause the same outcome? Just would be losing thousands of jobs in the process for people who didn't want that outcome in the first place, right?
BMX Bandit
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It does not affect the offer. Twitter can still take it, reject or counter

It stops Musk from buying it all without Board approval because more and more shares will be issued (at a lower price) so he can't get a majority stake
Premium
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AG
So what kind of legal trouble could the board be in for not selling?
FTAG 2000
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They'd rather burn it down than sell.

And Elon just handed them a flamethrower.

Next step will be a class action filed by shareholders seeing the value of their stocks decreased by a lack of fiduciary duty by the Board.

BMX Bandit
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Premium said:

So what kind of legal trouble could the board be in for not selling?


If Goldman report says value is at or above that, none really.
Sea Speed
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Burning it down also destroys value for millions of shareholders that don't have a dog in this fight so to speak. Just like everything leftists do, the regular folks just trying to get by and carve out a life for themselves are the ones who are the most adversely impacted if they burn it to the ground.
 
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