"Iron Man" Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter came to an end.
On April 25, local time, social media giant Twitter announced that it had accepted Musk's acquisition proposal with a transaction amount of $44 billion.
Twitter said in the announcement that the board has unanimously approved and accepted Musk's takeover and privatization offer. The company will be wholly owned by Musk at a price of $54.2 per share, for a total deal size of about $44 billion. The transaction is expected to close in 2022. After the transaction is completed, Twitter will no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but will be delisted and become a privately held company.
The purchase price is 38 percent premium to Twitter's April 1 closing price, the last trading day before Musk disclosed that he held more than 9 percent of the shares. $54.2 per share is also Musk's initial offer.
On April 25, Twitter shares rose to nearly $52, closing the day at $51.70, up 5.66 percent.
Meanwhile, Tesla shares edged down 0.07 percent to $998. Previously, Tesla released a revenue and profit report on April 21 that exceeded expectations, but some investors worried that Musk's "side business" would distract him and affect Tesla's development.
In fact, there is no shortage of American business giants who have shown a strong interest in the cultural media industry. Another world-rich amazon founder, Bezos, acquired The Washington Post in 2013 to digitalize it. For Twitter, people expect the social media to be activated by Musk. It is also currently the world's largest privatization deal.
Can Musk let Twitter go free?
Twitter has always been the most active "front" for Musk to make remarks. According to rough media statistics, Musk has been on Twitter since June 2009 and has sent out more than 17,000 tweets so far, with 84.4 million followers. Since Musk publicly ridiculed Zuckerberg in 2018, he quit Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter became his only social platform to speak out.
As you know, Musk has consistently described himself as an "absolutist of free speech," but has also been controversial for some of his remarks on Twitter. For example, a tweet about Tesla's privatization published in 2018 once triggered a class-action lawsuit against him.
Controversy aside, Musk has repeatedly slammed Twitter for its lack of free speech soil. On March 25, Musk launched a poll on Twitter, asking netizens about their attitudes toward Twitter. Two days later, more than 2 million netizens took part in the vote, and 70.4 percent believed that Twitter did not abide by the principle of free speech.
After forwarding the voting results, Musk added again, "Is a new platform needed?" It wasn't until April 4, when Musk transformed himself into Twitter's largest outside shareholder, that people realized that the world's richest man was really considering building a new social media platform.
The New York Times said that Musk's acquisition of Twitter could have a huge impact on the global political discourse environment, because Musk is an "absolute follower of free speech." Reuters also said Musk intends to make Twitter a "gladiatorial arena for free speech."
In a recent TED 2022 conference address, asked if there were any restrictions on his concept of "freedom of speech," Musk said Twitter would comply with national laws around the world. In addition to that, he said he was "very reluctant" to delete posts or permanently ban users who violated the company's rules.
Musk added that it won't be perfect, "but I think we want it to really have the perception and reality of as free speech as possible." ”
In addition to "free speech," Musk has repeatedly suggested that he wants to make Twitter's algorithms open source, meaning that others outside of Twitter will be able to view the source code and suggest fixes and changes.
In the acquisition statement, Musk said that Twitter is a digital city square where people discuss issues that are critical to the future of humanity, "I hope to enhance Twitter's product with a series of new features, such as open source algorithms to increase public trust, human-machine verification to solve problems such as spam bots, and make Twitter better." ”
And Musk's friend, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, also supported Musk's public call for Twitter to publish the core algorithm.
This also means that after Musk's successful acquisition of Twitter, the latter will also face major challenges of decentralization.
In recent years, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have been forced to get involved in political battles, such as the fact that last year, many of Trump's social media accounts were banned or limited by the platform, and Jack Dorsey, then CEO of Twitter, was worried about Twitter's "platform centralization". He believes this poses a great deal of political risk to social media platforms, including Twitter.
In 2019, Dorsey led Twitter launched Bluesky's Decentralized Technology Initiative, which aims to create a new social media infrastructure that allows platform users to control their own data through blockchain technology, customize the flow of information according to their needs, and allow them to freely transfer data to other platforms.
Since then, he has also advocated that the content decision power of social media should not be concentrated in the hands of the platform, but should be handed over to the hands of users, allowing users to control their own network data, and core technology algorithms and content standards should be open and transparent, so that everyone can clear which content is not allowed. This is the decentralized nature of social media platforms in the web 3.0 era.
As Dorsey's best friend, Musk shares the same consensus as him. Therefore, the outside world speculates that once Twitter is acquired, whether he will affect and promote Twitter to accelerate the application of blockchain technology and accelerate the pace of decentralization.
It's an undeniable fact that Musk's influence on Twitter is large enough.
Global consumer research platform Pipsay once conducted a survey of more than 30,000 U.S. adults, and 37% of them used Musk's Twitter tweets as an investment reference. Many of the investors who bet on Tesla are influenced by Musk's personal charm, and they have not even carefully analyzed Tesla's financial statements. Some American netizens even set up the Elon Stocks website to collect and display content related to Musk and Tesla stock and notify their registered members.
On April 5, local time, Musk launched a vote on Twitter, asking netizens whether they want the Tweet "Edit" function to correct errors in tweets that have been sent. More than 4 million users voted, and more than 70 percent of respondents said they wanted to add the feature. The day after the tweet was posted, Twitter claimed it would soon begin testing an "Edit" button that would allow users to change their Tweets.
In that TED 2022 conference address, Musk also mentioned that he was optimistic about Twitter's future potential: "I feel that having a public platform with the greatest trust and broad tolerance is extremely important for the future of civilization, and I don't care about the economic account at all." ”
Source: Visual China
An American business magnate with a preference for the cultural media industry
American business giants have long shown a strong interest in the cultural media industry. Best known for this is the fact that in 2013, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million.
In addition, Major League Baseball member Boston Red Sox owner John Henry bought the Boston Globe for $70 million in 2013. In 2017, Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, acquired a majority stake in The Atlantic through the Social Organization she founded, The Emerson Collective. In 2018, Marc Benioff, founder of software services provider Salesforce, and his wife, Lynne Benioff, bought Time magazine for $190 million in cash.
Why are business giants so interested in the media?
Before being acquired by Bezos, The Washington Post lost nearly $50 million in the first half of 2013, with declining revenue and subscribers; Twitter had a net loss of $221 million in 2021.
In a 2013 interview with cbs news program 60 Minutes, Bezos said he didn't know why he bought The Washington Post because he knew almost nothing about journalism. But Don Graham, then CEO of The Washington Post, argued that "it is precisely because the newspaper industry has suffered a huge impact from the Internet that a person with extensive Internet and technology experience will certainly be of great help to the newspaper." ”
Eventually, Bezos believed in the theory, and he said he wanted to bring the Post into the digital age. Later facts also proved Bezos's ability, the number of Washington Post users increased, and traffic increased. Henry Blodget, founder of BusinessInsider, has said that Amazon distributes massive print and digital media content and is involved in film and television services, and the Washington Post can also provide support for this, and Amazon and the Washington Post may complement each other. BusinessInsider is also one of the media outlets that Bezos has invested in.
The reason why I am so interested in the cultural media industry is often related to the personal experience and public mission of business leaders.
In 2018, Chinese-American entrepreneur Huang Xinxiang bought the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego United Tribune for $500 million, and Huang Xinxiang founded Abraxis BioScience Pharmaceuticals in the United States, becoming a billionaire after selling the company. As for why the acquisition was made, he said part of the reason stemmed from growing up in South Africa, where there was no press freedom. In his letter to his readers, he mentioned that he was committed to tackling fake news and building a bastion of integrity and independent editing.
For the media, when sales fall and advertising competition is too fierce, embracing business tycoons may be a good choice.
According to media reports, after the news that Bezos was going to buy the Washington Post, some old employees "cried bitterly" because of the passing of an era, while others were looking forward to it. Adrian Holovaty, an editor who left the newspaper, tweeted: "If I could work under him [Bezos], I would really like to return to the newspaper industry." ”
Twitter is more influential than traditional media. On Monday, local time, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said that "at present" the company has no layoff plans, and he will continue to serve as the company's CEO until the transaction is completed, but does not know in what direction the platform will develop, and Twitter will face uncertainty in the future.
Resources:
《Elon Musk on Twitter, Tesla, and the Future | Ted 2022》，PODCAST NOTES
Angel or Devil? How will Musk's entry into Twitter change? , and Xun Network
"A New Generation of Tycoons Are Keen to Buy Media And Don't Make Money", Source: BBC
Amazon's 25th Anniversary: The Road to Success and Controversy between Bezos and Amazon, Source: BBC