I have been seriously wondering what Musk would actually be buying.

Twitter isn’t a meaningful information sharing platform. It does not promote communication. It requires users to favor banter. I haven’t seen much use of Twitter as anything other than sharing links and making quirky comments. It is commonly used for taking swipes at other people on a platform which greatly limits follow up discussion.

I see absolutely no features or Twitter which provide real value. As an example, look at Facebook. As a platform; it is generally also a cesspool, but everyone tends to have a Facebook account and often have messenger because it is the modern equivalent of a personal phone book. Twitter doesn’t have a real networking feature. You just follow people, you don’t connect with them.

I wouldn’t consider Twitter a worthy investment. The only value I can see for Musk to buy Twitter is to hurt Donald Trump. And frankly, he is rich enough to do something petty like that.

Exactly.

The only time you see meaningful posts on twitter, they are generally split into a large bunch of consecutive tweets, which looks messy, and can cause parts of the message to "go missing".

The whole system is designed to restrict any meaningful discussions!

I thought Musk was buying Twatter as he thought it was censoring people and he was going change that policy? (Th censoring of people who criticize Musk would continue...)

I think it's the opposite; if he bought Twitter and choose very selectively not to apply its various moderation policies, he could continue his ingratiation with the Republican Party and thereby gain such favours as he desires next time the pendulum of government swings back to them.

See also: the drama of the Texas AG vs Twitter, with Texas 'inexplicably' using government clout to further Musk's objectives.

The ROI is ingratiating himself (again; more) with tRump, allowing the Orange-utan back on the megaphone so that he can FUD himself back into power. The Muskrat can then expect serial favors from he who would be our last president.

At least, that would be the plan...assuming of course that tRump is not serving time in Leavenworth by then.

He's rich enough that he could just be doing it to improve the world.

Imagine if the left wing cess pit was no longer a left wing cess pit.

I don't know the man, so I could be being unfair, but I doubt he is doing it to improve the world. People don't get to be billionaires by throwing money at stuff for free. There will be some bonus for him or his companies.

veryone tends to have a Facebook account and often have messenger because it is the modern equivalent of a personal phone book

.. which is the exact reason I do not have a Facebook account, and any use of it by companies to communicate with customers should be cause for a GDPR fine. We even have an evaluation of social media use as one of the rules in the assessment protocol for vendors now.

Musk is going to burn for this. He's gone too far this time, making wild statements and making illogical decisions. I qualify paying $45 billion for a worthless POS like Twitter as nothing short of insanity or financial belligerence with the intent to self-inflict injury.

When he announced the deal I knew Tesla and SpaceX would be pulled down with him. And I've been proven right.

He's estimated to be worth more than $200bn so he can find the $1bn breakup fee if he has to, but I also wonder whether he's antagonising exactly the people who constitute the majority of his customers.

Elon does what billionaires do to avoid paying taxes. Instead of selling stock which generates a taxable income, he uses that stock as collateral for loans. The only reason he sold stock last year was to cover the taxes on stock options that were about to expire. With his shenanigans causing the stock price of Tesla to fall, he's at risk of the banks demanding more collateral. If he's suddenly forced to sell a bunch of stock to cover the twitter deal he could be facing another billion dollar tax bill. And dumping more Tesla stock could further drive down Tesla's stock.

> he can find the $1bn breakup fee if he has to

The problem is he may have to come up with the $44b. Musk cannot terminate the takeover deal at will by just paying $1b. There is a contract between Musk and Twitter for the takeover of Twitter. Unless Musk can find a sufficiently valid legal reason to break the contract, or Twitter agrees to Musk backing out with just the $1b break-fee, Twitter could force Musk to go through with the full $44b takeover. Don't forget in that takoever contract, Musk specifically waived standard due diligence conditions. Therefore it would have to be something really huge, something beyond normal due diligence - since that has been waived - problems cropping up, and Musk's complaints about the bot-rate isn't it. That spam-bot estimate - 5% - has been public knowledge, it's been listed in previous Twitter SEC filings, since before the takeover proposal. Therefore that is something that Musk should already know, at least if he performed normal due diligence, but of course he waived that right.

The fun part is that even if he wants to, he can't take the $1BN breakup fee option. He's signed the agreement to buy already, waiving due diligence as he did so, and he now has to attempt to buy Twitter at the agreed price. The breakup fee only comes into play if he's unable to secure funding, and "but the bots" or "I don't want to" doesn't count as being unable. If he can't wrangle any investors any more, he has to go back to the original offer of paying by selling of his own shares.

Kick and scream as much as he wants, he's made his bed and now has to sleep in it. The question is just if he'll give in (which being that it's Musk, just lol at that happening), or if Twitter has to drag him to court first.

If he can prove fraud, which it could be argued that the dodgy bot numbers are, then surely that's an out ( and an in for the directors. In to prison ).

Which he won't be able to do. Twitter didn't court Elon, they wanted him to F%&K off. Elon forced this deal on them.

The TL;DR of this pantomime has been to expose the fact that any "value" in social media platforms is derived from what the owners of said social media platforms claim.

I've known car salesmen like that.

All Musk has done is put them to the sword. And - surprise, surprise - mysteriously they can't find the goods.

If anyone pays to advertise on Twatter after this (or "Meta" or whatever the current trend is) without negotiating a serious discount is a little dim.

And that is why Musk has drawn the haters.

Social media platforms are a little like ponzi cryptoscams. You seem to need a new one every so often to ensure people still part with cash.

No he has done considerably more than that by signing legally binding agreements which he will undoubtedly vigourously contest in court for several years up and down to various appellate levels. The lawyers are licking their lips and they are about the only people to benefit from this shambles.

It has ads?

Of course its an excuse to bail on the deal; he was well aware of that "issue" long before he opened his mouth to brag about how he was going to "free" the internet for the likes of Drumpf to spew their lies and BS.