Speaker 1: Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter. Let's get all the facts.
Speaker 2: Twitter has become kind of the defacto town square, really important that people have the, both the, uh, the reality and the perception, uh, that they're able to speak freely within the bounds of the lull.
Speaker 1: Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter at $54 and 20 cents per share valuing the social media company at 43 billion. According [00:00:30] to a regulatory filing in a letter to Brett Taylor, the chairman of Twitter's board of directors, Musk said Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it an hour. After the story broke, Musk tweeted, I made an offer Musk's offer to buy Twitter is the latest in a string of events between the billionaire and the social media site. It comes just days after he decided not to join Twitter's board of directors after acquiring a 9.2% stake in the company in March, the nearly [00:01:00] $3 billion after acquisition made Musk Twitter's largest shareholder until the Vanguard group increased its stake and bumped him from the top spot. Once news of Musk's bid hit Twitter, there were mixed reactions. Musk's followers and supporters expressed excitement that he might own the social media platform, but many more voice concern at the idea of the reportedly richest person in the world, owning Twitter and adding the company to his numerous business assets. However Musk [00:01:30] says, he's not looking to make money from Twitter. That is he doesn't view the acquisition as a financial investment. Instead, he sees it as a service for public. Good.
Speaker 2: My strong intuitive sense is that, uh, having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don't care about the economics at all.
Speaker 1: An avid Twitter user Musk is also one of the site's biggest critics. Musk [00:02:00] tweeted a poll to his 81 million followers in March asking whether users believe Twitter was protecting free speech. He said the poll results in which roughly 70% of 2 million respondents answered no would be very important as part of his original agreement to join Twitter's board Musk had pledged to cap any investment at 14.9% while serving a two year term with the agreement. Now, scraped Musk is free to add to a stake. If Musk acquires Twitter, he [00:02:30] says he wants to increase the public's trust of the platform by making it a place of inclusivity and true freedom of speech, a necessary feature of any functioning democracy. He adds during an interview at the 2022 Ted conference in Vancouver Musk said that he values truth on April 9th. He shared a tweet reading truth is the first casualty with an image from a U gov survey showing the most trusted media organizations since announcing his stake in Twitter in April Musk has posted several tweets about what [00:03:00] he'd change at the company.
Speaker 1: And one which has since been deleted. He asked whether Twitter San Francisco headquarters should be turned into a homeless shelter because no one shows up anyway. And another, he asked if Twitter was dying as one of Twitter's largest shareholders Musk already has a lot of power. He can him up with other shareholders and push for any changes he wants to see. Musk also has a tendency to sway public opinion with his tweets. After tweeting Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. [00:03:30] Multiple crypto coins took a dive. When he said Tesla would start accepting DOJ coin for some merchandise, the cryptocurrency searched. He could use that power and influence to try to bring changes to Twitter without buying it. If he does acquire Twitter, Musk proposed a number of changes he would make to the social media platform, including an edit button, something he pulled his followers about a few weeks ago, Twitter has been working on an edit feature since 2021.
Speaker 1: Something Musk didn't acknowledge during his Ted conference interview, [00:04:00] Musk's edit button would be time sensitive and also zero out any retweets eliminating scam bots and bot armies on Twitter would also be a top priority for Musk. He noted during his interview that they bring down the site's product value and make it worse for users. Musk said he would also make Twitter's content moderation practices, more trans parent. He added that users should know whether tweets were being promoted or deemphasized manually or algorithmically. He cautioned against permanent bands from Twitter AB [00:04:30] advocating for temporary suspensions. Instead Musk believes Twitter's coding structure should be transparent as well. If he purchases Twitter, he said he would post its open source data on get hub, a popular forum for coders. So people can access the company's data, identify flaws and offer solutions. Musk is an avid Twitter user with over 81 million followers.
Speaker 1: However, he admits he doesn't really have a strategy for his Twitter account. His tweets are reflections of a stream of consciousness. It's impressive [00:05:00] considering that neither Tesla nor SpaceX companies, he owns operate a marketing or public relations department news and developments at both companies is often shared first via Musk's Twitter account Musk's interest in acquiring Twitter is just one in a long line of billionaires, increasingly investing in media organizations, mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of me formally Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 for 1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for 19 billion, [00:05:30] both acquisitions came under scrutiny from lawmakers and social media users. A short time after his Ted event, interview Musk tweeted. His offer should be put to a shareholder vote despite all the attention. Some analysts say it's unlikely. Twitter will accept. Musk's offer a handful of Twitter's investors. Think the 43 billion offer is too low and say, the company will likely look around for other buyers in his letter to the chairman of Twitter's board. Musk said that if Twitter rejects the offer, he'd reconsider his position as a shareholder [00:06:00] in the company.
