Elon Musk Didn't Acquire Anything - He is Merely Overseeing an Acquisition

[usonian]

https://andrewleahey.com/elon-musk-didnt-acquire-twitter-hes-merely-overseeing-an-acquisition/
Opinion by Andrew Leahey

In sum, he wishes to free Twitter from influence by outside forces – other than his own, presumably.

That being the goal, Elon will front the money to buy Twitter and then he can set any rules he wants – right? Wrong. In order to finance the purchase he needed to undertake what is known as a leveraged buyout (“LBO”) which is not at all uncommon, but is somewhat antithetical to Musk’s stated purpose. ...

Regardless of whether one believes Musk’s motivations to be on the side of the angels, privatizing Twitter will not attenuate market signals but intensify them. Investors in Tesla, whether or not a margin loan is in play, can lean on Musk to make changes to the platform that meet their needs and desires. The same goes for his equity investors. One of them, hypothetically of course, may be a billionaire 2020 election denier that would seek to amplify certain voices over others.

The fatal flaw in Musk’s vision of Twitter as public square is in his acquisition. The beauty of the square lies in it belonging to no-one and everyone. Twitter as a publicly traded company falls short of that ideal, to be sure, but concentrating ownership moves it further still.

Just passing this along, because it's a mix of finance and politics, not my strength.
And this no doubt presumes that he doesn't just destroy it through mismanagement.
Found via Hacker News.

[Frasier Balzov]

1. Musk's concentration of ownership in himself

makes Twitter less suitable as a public resource.

I wonder if Elon Musk knows Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia?

Of course, Wikipedia was established as a non-profit foundation.

Maybe it's possible for Twitter to be transformed into that through destruction of the business and a scavenger sale in bankruptcy.

That's my vision of a socially positive outcome from this vain folly.

[usonian]

2. Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Is Working On A Twitter Rival.

https://democraticunderground.com/100217309769

https://wt.social/


The non-toxic social network

Welcome to a place where advertisers don’t call the shots.
Where your data isn’t packaged up and sold.
Where you – not algorithms – decide what you see.
Where you can directly edit misleading content.
Where bad actors are kicked out and kept out.
Where you actually like spending time.
Welcome to social media the way it should be.
Welcome to WT.Social.


I mention others at the link.
Many are trying Mastodon servers.
The Internet Archive just set one up.
https://mastodon.archive.org/about

[Frasier Balzov]

3. That's terrific! Except Twitter still has all the users :(

The reason why Musk didn't want to start something new from scratch is because of the enormous influence of the existing platform as a gathering place.

Having started Tesla from scratch, he knew how difficult it is to create a pioneering change agent out of nothing.

So he thought he'd try a short cut.

[usonian]

5. He bought (into) Tesla as VC a year after it was started from scratch.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Tesla,_Inc.

He bought foundership. Ego?

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Maybe Elon will buy eBay - sell more Teslas and blue checkmarks at a discount!