Elon Musk, the world's richest man, paid $44 billion to buy Twitter, a social media giant. After the purchase, Musk fired CEO Parag Agarwal and a large number of Twitter employees. Musk has claimed that Twitter has now been set free, and he aims to bring a revolution of freedom to Twitter and end all biases. However, Twitter sued Musk, eventually forcing him to acquire the platform.
The backstory reveals that Musk secretly bought shares in Twitter, increasing his stake to 5% by 14th March. After missing the deadline to disclose this to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he began discussing his ideas for Twitter with Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter. On 14th April 2022, Musk shocked everyone by announcing his offer to buy the whole company for $43 billion.
Twitter's Board accepted the offer on 25th April 2022, but with some conditions. Musk couldn't say anything negative about Twitter or its employees publicly until the deal was processed. If he couldn't secure the deal, a $1 billion termination fee would be levied on him. However, on 13th May, Musk suffered buyer's remorse and put the deal on hold.
On 17th May, Twitter filed new documents with the SEC, claiming that Musk was breaching the contract by showing uncertainty to the public. In June, the SEC directed Twitter to provide the data requested by Musk. On 7th July, Twitter revealed that they remove 1 million bots from the platform every day. On 29th July 2022, Musk filed a court case against Twitter, claiming that Twitter had not publicised the details.
On 3rd September, the Senate Judiciary Committee of America agreed to listen to the allegations made by Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, Twitter's previous Head of Security, who accused Twitter of following unethical safety practices. On 4th October, Musk took a U-turn and informed Twitter that the $44 billion offer was still applicable. On 27th October 2022, this deal was finally closed, and Musk officially bought Twitter.
Musk plans to make Twitter like the Chinese app WeChat, where people can tweet, chat, video call, play video games, and make payments. He also plans to give the blue tick marks to everyone at the cost of $8 per month, claiming that this will be a new source of revenue for Twitter. However, critics claim that Musk is trying to recover his investment by making any feature 'paid'. As of now, Twitter is a private company with Elon Musk as the new CEO.
1. Elon Musk, the world's richest man, paid $44 billion to buy Twitter .
2. After the acquisition, Musk fired CEO Parag Agarwal and a large number of Twitter employees .
3. Elon Musk claimed that Twitter has now been set free and he aims to allow more freedom of speech .
4. His biggest agenda is to make Twitter a maximally trusted and broadly inclusive public platform that is extremely important for the future of civilization .
5. Musk is planning to transform Twitter into a platform similar to the Chinese app WeChat, where people can tweet, chat, video call, play video games, and make payments .
6. He plans to give blue tick marks to everyone at the cost of $8 per month, which he claims will be a new source of revenue for Twitter .
7. Elon Musk plans to take Twitter's revenue to $26 Billion by 2028, up from $5 Billion last year .
8. He aims to have 931 million users by 2028, up from 217 million users on Twitter now .
9. To enable an expansion of this scale, he may try to shape Twitter like TikTok .
10. On 31st October, he tweeted a poll to see if people wanted to bring back Vine to Twitter .
11. On 27th October 2022, this deal was finally closed and Elon Musk officially bought Twitter .
12. The employees working at Twitter listed out their worries that 75% of the employees working at Twitter might be fired by Elon Musk .
13. Elon Musk plans to create a new Content Moderation Council, which will work to handle free speech .
14. He wants to revoke the suspension of accounts such as Donald Trump that had been suspended permanently .
15. He plans to take Twitter's revenue to $26 Billion by 2028 .
16. He aims to have 931 million users by 2028, up from 217 million users on Twitter now .
17. To enable an expansion of this scale, he may try to shape Twitter like TikTok .
18. On 31st October, he tweeted a poll to see if people wanted to bring back Vine to Twitter .