Keep and eye on this one

[Mark]

I work for a company that was taken over by an outsider that bought a major stake, so I've seen how these things can go...





Outspoken Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchased a giant stake in Twitter that makes him the largest outside shareholder in the social media stock, not long after criticizing the company for failing to uphold the tenets of free speech.

Musk owns 73,486,938 shares of Twitter, which represents a 9.2% passive stake in the company, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission 13G filing released Monday. The stake is worth $2.89 billion, based Twitter’s closing price on Friday.

The Musk buy comes less than two weeks after Musk criticized the company, polling people on Twitter about whether Twitter adheres to free speech principles. “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk tweeted. “What should be done?”

Late last month, Musk also said he was considering building a new social media platform.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/04/twitter ... mpany.html

[Mark]

Too late to edit...

"Keep an eye on this one"

[Gopher]

Indeed. Large stockholders have more power with a company than most folks know. When I worked for Verizon one of the largest stockholders was a group of Nuns in New York and they were a pain in the side of the company for years.

[GRANDPA]

73,486,938 million shares are only 9.2%?? How many total shares are out there? My math skills are a little rusty.

[Mark]

73,486,938 million shares are only 9.2%?? How many total shares are out there? My math skills are a little rusty.

(100/9.2)73,486,938

[Mark]

This is hilarious...




Twitter employees are speaking out after it was revealed on Monday that tech billionaire Elon Musk is now one of the largest shareholders in the platform, with 9.2 percent ownership. This comes after it was rumored that Musk might be in the market to buy Twitter and secure the holding for free speech in America, following CEO Parag Agrawal's claim that Twitter is not beholden to American free speech laws.

In response, some employees at Twitter took to the platform to express their unease with Musk taking such a large share of ownership.

https://thepostmillennial.com/twitter-e ... aign=64487

[Sangersteve]

Parag Agrawal
@paraga
I’m excited to share that we’re appointing
@elonmusk
to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.
7:32 AM · Apr 5, 2022·Twitter for iPhone

[Mark]

Parag Agrawal
@paraga
I’m excited to share that we’re appointing
@elonmusk
to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.
7:32 AM · Apr 5, 2022·Twitter for iPhone

Yep, that's how it starts...

The newest largest shareholder gets a seat on the board...

Then the newest largest shareholder starts demanding that other board members get replace with his own hand-picked people...

The the newest largest shareholder installs his own CEO...

And before you know it, the company is the play toy of the newest largest shareholder.


The out of control employees at Twitter that have used the business as their own personal wokefare weapon have a good reason to be worried. Their gigs are just about up.

[Mark]

There's also this...




Supporters of Donald Trump are urging Elon Musk to reinstate the ex-president’s Twitter account after Tesla’s billionaire boss became the social network’s biggest shareholder and got a seat on Twitter’s board.

Trump was banned from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and all other large social media platforms following the Jan. 6, 2021, rioting at the US Capitol. Trump has since launched a social media platform of his own, Truth Social, but it has been beset by technical glitches and departures of key executives.

Now pro-Trump voices are calling on Musk to burnish his pro-free speech credentials and to bring back the former president.

“Now that @ElonMusk is Twitter’s largest shareholder, it’s time to lift the political censorship,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), tweeted on Monday.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/05/twitter-u ... s-account/

[Mark]

Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share in cash, or about $43 billion, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday.

Why it matters: The move comes after Musk has repeatedly criticized Twitter, disclosed a 9.2% stake in the social media company, then backed out of joining its board of directors.

What they're saying: "I am not playing the back-and-forth game. I have moved straight to the end. It's a high price and your shareholders will love it," Musk told Twitter, per the filing.

"If the deal doesn’t work, given that I don’t have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder."

https://www.axios.com/elon-musk-offers- ... 4746a.html

[BigTex]

As I understand it, he decided not to be on the board because a member of the board is limited in how many shared they can own.

[Mark]

As I understand it, he decided not to be on the board because a member of the board is limited in how many shared they can own.

That's the same thing I read.

[Mark]

Announcing his takeover bid of Twitter on Thursday morning, Elon Musk put in black and white what many people have known for years: Twitter’s politically-motivated management are trampling on free speech and democracy while driving the platform into the ground.

Just days after rejecting his seat on the board, Musk delivered a brutal rebuke of the platform and its leaders, stating that Twitter does not serve the “societal imperative” of free speech and that its current structure and management need to go – otherwise he would need to reconsider his investment in Twitter.

“It’s clear Twitter disrespected the world’s richest man, and he realizes that while Twitter’s technology is good, the people running it cannot be fixed. Musk has made clear that in order to be saved, Twitter needs a wholesale tear-down to the foundation, its leadership must be removed, and the politically discriminating ideologues running day to day operations must be replaced,” GETTR CEO Jason Miller said Thursday.

https://about.gettr.com/press/elon-musk ... n-platform

[Mark]

Twitter’s desperate gambit on Friday to stave off Elon Musk’s bid for a hostile takeover is technically known as a shareholder rights plan, but investors call it a “poison pill.” Here’s how it works, and what might happen next.

A poison pill allows other shareholders – but not the would-be buyer – to scoop up newly minted shares at a discount, boosting their investments while forcing the target to swallow “economic poison” by having his shares diluted. The move is an unmistakable signal that the board is not interested in the prospective hostile acquiror, despite a potential profit for shareholders. If the maneuver succeeds, shareholders are certain to flood the courts with lawsuits, accusing the directors of Twitter of breaching their fiduciary duties.

There are three possible outcomes now, none of which are ideal for Twitter’s current board: Musk could win by successfully initiating a proxy contest to remove the directors and nix the poison pill; Musk forces the company to find a “white knight,” or alternative buyer, potentially at a higher price, thus making his shares more valuable; Musk walks away and leaves the company and the board facing a pile of lawsuits as shareholders blame them for hurting the value of their stock.


I believe the part highlighted in red will probably happen fairly soon...

Remember, you don't have to own 50% of a publicly traded company in order to control it.

[Mark]

Elon Musk's bid to buy Twitter and take the company private has prompted backlash among political, cultural and corporate elites, especially on the left, who appear unwilling to cede control over the flow of information on the social media platform even if that means less value for shareholders.

To the extent that a key motive behind Musk's bid is to expose these interlocking elites' dependence on a managed news environment and information control to maintain their ascendancy, Musk may have already won — whatever the ultimate outcome of his bid for the company.

https://justthenews.com/nation/culture/ ... witter-bid

[Mark]

Elon Musk's bid to buy Twitter and take the company private has prompted backlash among political, cultural and corporate elites, especially on the left, who appear unwilling to cede control over the flow of information on the social media platform even if that means less value for shareholders.

To the extent that a key motive behind Musk's bid is to expose these interlocking elites' dependence on a managed news environment and information control to maintain their ascendancy, Musk may have already won — whatever the ultimate outcome of his bid for the company.

https://justthenews.com/nation/culture/ ... witter-bid

Related story:

Social media platforms suspended a congressional candidate for saying cowardice enables evil and conditioned Donald Trump's reinstatement on the "risk of violence" receding long after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — but missed or ignored threats of violence, wishing harm and racial hatred from the lone suspect in the New York subway shooting

Federal prosecutors said Frank James, who made his first court appearance Thursday, had a "stockpile of ammunition and other dangerous items stowed in his storage unit," according to NBC News.

Journalists and internet sleuths documented videos, memes and other posts by James on one or more YouTube and Facebook accounts going back years — and as recently as this week — that likely violated their content policies. His tweets mostly link to his other social media.

https://justthenews.com/government/secu ... sm-suspect

[Sangersteve]

It’s been fun watching the left go into total meltdown over the possibility that Elon might make Twitter allow a difference of opinion.

[Mark]

It’s been fun watching the left go into total meltdown over the possibility that Elon might make Twitter allow a difference of opinion.

The newspaper owned 100% by Jeff Bezos whining about the possibility of a rich man owning a media company was particularly amusing.

[rusty]

i wish Twitter would let Trump back in.

Not enough people are hearing his inane rantings.

[Mark]

Bezos Musk Business Insider.jpg (788.55 KiB) Viewed 686 times