Elon Musk purchased Twitter but what is the Reality😨

Well … I think you already know that the news which is flashing on social media is – World’s Richest person, Elon Musk purchased Twitter on October 27^th, 2022 … Are you really happy with this or not let us know in the comments below. But what about the reality?

Has Elon Musk purchased Twitter in elation?

Or

Was Elon Musk forced to acquire Twitter?

Let us clearly understand the reality and why Elon Musk purchased Twitter in a step-by-step format and in layman’s language. Just take a cup of coffee and let’s get started …

Twitter’s History

Twitter is regarded as a huge microblogging and social networking service site owned by Twitter Inc. On this platform, users create their profiles and post different messages which are known as ‘Tweets’.

Founders – Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass.

Launching Date – July 2006.

In 2012, Twitter Inc. reported that around 100 million users were posting 340 million tweets every day. In 2019, the company reported that there were around 330 million active users every month.

Before coming to the point when Elon Musk purchased Twitter, we need to understand when he actually invested in Twitter for the first time and finally took control.

Elon Musk purchased Twitter shares for the first time

On January 31^st, 2022, Elon Musk purchased Twitter shares for the first time. Within a couple of months, he steadily increased his stake in it by purchasing more number of shares. The share price of Twitter on that day made a low of around $35.33 and a high of $37.52. At that point of time, neither you nor I came to know that he had already invested in Twitter as it was not disclosed publicly.

Elon Musk purchased Twitter Inc.’s 5% shares

On March 14^th, 2022, Elon Musk’s stake in Twitter increased to 5%. The share price of Twitter on that day made a low of around $32.46 and a high of $33.94. And Yes, that was the time when it was not disclosed to the public but it should have been disclosed to the public. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of America, whenever the stake in a company reaches 5%, the shareholder must disclose it to the SEC and the public. SEC provided a deadline of 10 days to Elon Musk within which he was required to disclose but he missed the deadline.

What happened on March 24, 2022?

On March 24, 2022, Elon Musk started using Twitter to criticize Twitter itself.

Well, what did Elon Musk actually do?

Elon Musk tweeted by asking the users whether they feel that there is enough freedom on Twitter and whether it supports Free Speech and Democracy. Even in an interview, he revealed the fact that the users must use the platform to place their opinions freely.

Elon Musk met Jack Dorsey and the Board of Members

Elon Musk started having conversations with the former CEO, Jack Dorsey about his new ideas for benefitting the users. Jack Dorsey appeared to be with the visions of Elon Musk at the initial stage.

On April 3^rd, 2022, Elon Musk met CEO Parag Agarwal and the rest of the Board members. Elon Musk specifically asked the Board members to make Twitter completely a private company, failing which he would make another rival social media platform to compete with Twitter.

Disclosure to Public

On April 4^th, 2022, for the first time, the public came to know that Elon Musk had a huge stake in Twitter and by that time, Elon Musk purchased Twitter Inc.’s 9.2% of the total number of shares. Users started investing immediately when the news flashed and on that day, Twitter’s share price increased by 30%.

Parag Agarwal places an offer for Elon Musk

On April 5^th, 2022, the then-CEO Parag Agarwal placed an offer for Elon Musk to become a board member of Twitter so that Elon Musk could share his multifarious ideas with other board members. On the same day, Elon Musk accepted the offer.

What happened on April 9, 2022?

On April 9^th, 2022, Elon Musk tweeted by asking the users to say whether Twitter was dying. This naturally frustrated Parag Agarwal which enticed him to send an angry text message to Elon Musk by saying why he was criticizing Twitter even after holding a large stake in the company. Parag also texted him by saying that he had offered him a seat on the board.

Within an hour, Elon Musk in reply said that he had no interest in taking that offer anymore as he felt that doing multifarious meetings with other board members would be a waste of time.

Elon Musk’s decision of taking over Twitter

On April 11^th, 2022, Elon Musk declared his decision of making Twitter, a private company. On April 14^th, 2022, Elon Musk gave the shocking news to the world of his decision of taking Twitter for $43 billion.

According to many experts, Elon Musk actually remained attached to Twitter but did not want to stay as a board member. Experts also felt that once Elon Musk purchased Twitter, he would have the liberty of making decisions on his whim.

According to the law, if a company is listed in the stock market, the officials must disclose several decisions publicly and Elon Musk thought of transferring the company into private by owning it so that he would not have to disclose his decisions publicly.

What was Twitter’s response on hearing Elon Musk’s offer?

Jack Dorsey became elated on hearing Elon Musk’s decision of taking over Twitter. Elon Musk was not happy with Parag Agarwal’s pace of making the board members agree for which Elon Musk became frustrated.

Elon Musk disclosed his financial sources for purchasing Twitter

On April 20, 2022, several reports revealed that Elon Musk required funds to acquire funds from different sources. Out of the total, $7 billion will come through senior bank loans, $6.25 billion in normal bank loans, $6 billion in the form of subordinated debt, $20 billion by selling Tesla shares, and $7 billion in the form of shares from 19 investors. On April 25^th, 2022, Twitter accepted this offer.

Twitter placed an order before Elon Musk saying that he cannot post any negative comments about Twitter till the date before Elon Musk takes over Twitter.

Twitter deal on Hold

On May 13^th, 2022, Elon Musk started suffering from Buyer’s remorse and kept the deal on hold. As an excuse, he claimed that according to the reports, there are 5% bots but according to him there are around 20% which shows that he got cheated.

The then-CEO Parag Agarwal said that Twitter couldn’t get any external review for retaining the privacy of the users and Elon Musk replied to him with a poop emoji. On May 17^th, 2022, Twitter filed a case against Elon Musk claiming that there had been a breach of contract as Elon started iterating things against Twitter.

In June 2022, SEC asked Twitter to provide Elon with a report on bots. On July 7^th, 2022, Twitter mentioned that every day around 1 million spam accounts are deleted but no specific proof will be provided. In response to this, on July 8^th, 2022, Elon Musk expressed his desire of terminating the deal.

Twitter filed a case against Elon Musk

On July 12, 2022, Twitter filed a case against Elon Musk as he was creating uncertainty which was dampening the company’s performance. That time, Twitter approached the court so that Elon Musk takes over Twitter based on whatever decision the court will take. On July 29^th, 2022, Elon Musk filed a case against Twitter saying that Twitter did not provide relevant details about bots.

Peiter “Mudge” Zatko’s whistleblower report

On August 23^rd, 2022, Peiter claimed that Twitter was using softwares which were out-of-date and performing unethical practices. Elon Musk leveraged this and sent a second letter to Twitter for terminating the deal. But on October 3^rd, 2022, Elon Musk’s legal team iterated that there are no solid pieces of evidence of what Peiter was claiming for which the deal cannot be terminated.

Elon Musk reverses course

On October 4^th, 2022, Elon Musk showed his desire again to purchase Twitter for $44 billion. On October 20^th, 2022, the employees became worried about the consequences which might occur once Elon Musk purchased Twitter. The decision of firing 75% of the total employees was made once Elon Musk takes control of Twitter. The employees wrote an open letter stating that it would be bad for Twitter if Elon Musk takes over Twitter and start firing employees.

Finally, on October 27^th, 2022, Elon Musk purchased Twitter. Instantly, reports revealed that he has terminated the then-CEO Parag Agarwal along with the CFO, the Chief Legal Officer and the General Council and Elon Musk became the new CEO.

Also Read: Rivian Stock Price Prediction 2050

Conclusion: New Initiatives

After Elon Musk purchased Twitter, on October 27^th, 2022, Twitter got delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Elon Musk then disclosed his new plans to the public. Firstly he wants to make Twitter similar to a Chinese App called WeChat, where other than tweeting, people can chat with each other, do video calls, play video games and even make digital payments. Secondly, any user can get the blue tick mark beside his/her name by paying $8 per month. On November 28^th, 2022, Decrypt disclosed that Twitter is planning to accept Dogecoin as a payment. Due to this dogecoin’s price showed double-digit growth of over 20% in a week.

According to the critics, as Elon Musk purchased Twitter by spending huge money, he is making Twitter, a source of revenue. Moreover, he said that there will be a ‘Content Moderation Council’ for handling issues related to free speech. Several reports also anticipate that in order to reduce costs, half of the employees might get terminated. Elon Musk also has a goal of increasing the number of users to 931 million in 2028. We would love to hear your opinions of what extra features Elon Musk must bring in …

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