Elon Musk secures $46.5bn to fund possible hostile bid for Twitter

[AZProgressive]

Elon Musk has secured $46.5bn (£35.6bn) in financing to fund a possible hostile bid for Twitter and is putting up $21bn of his own money as part of the package.

On top of that equity, Musk is raising a further $12.5bn for the offer via a margin loan secured against his shares in Tesla, the electric carmaker that he runs as CEO. Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank, is leading a group of financial institutions providing $13bn in debt financing.

The funding commitments were outlined in a filing on Thursday with the US financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission. The document confirmed that the world’s richest man was “exploring whether to commence a tender offer” for the shares in Twitter he does not hold. Musk already owns 9.2% of the social media platform and announced a $54.20-per-share bid last week.

A tender offer is viewed as a hostile bid because it bypasses the company’s board, which in a conventional takeover situation would be expected to recommend an offer to shareholders. Instead, Twitter’s board has moved to block Musk from increasing his shareholding without its approval.

https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/21/elon-musk-twitter-secures-fund-possible-hostile-bid-tesla

[Silent3]

1. He's really eager to turn Twitter into an even more toxic sewer, isn't he? n/t

[Initech]

18. And it will be a complete disaster if Trump is let back on the platform.

[leftstreet]

2. So he didn't have enough money in his spare change jar?

I originally thought his teasing offers were just a bored whim

Why on earth would he go into debt for it? Bizarre

[barbaraann]

3. Their desire for the power to destroy democracy and do evil has consumed them.

In this particular case, the irony is that well-meaning people who have bought Teslas have to watch their money used as a weapon against them.

[Talitha]

4. He needs to buy some brains - and a better personality.

[Irish_Dem]

5. American oligarchs want what the Russian oligarchs have.

Unlimited wealth and power. Suck every dollar out of the American economy that they can.

[keep_left]

20. Not much doubt about that. Not just Elon Musk, but also...

...Peter Thiel, the Mercers, Uihleins, et al. People have no idea just how much wealth was siphoned out of the former USSR after the Wall came down. There were some economic figures posted recently on DU that were astonishing. The per capita income in Russia is at a third-world subsistence level. Really shameful, and that shame belongs entirely to the oligarchs.

[Irish_Dem]

21. Yes Putin and the oligarchs pretty much took the nation's wealth.

All of it.

Putin is said to be the richest man in the world.

Russia isn't really a country in the traditional sense. It is a mass of land ruled by mobsters.

[phylny]

6. Twitter isn't that special to me.

I’ll leave in a heartbeat.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. me too

Cancel account the minute it goes through.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

10. Me too. I left FB years ago.

Are there any other options for sane folk out there?

[tymorial]

8. Elon Musk's ability to grift is eclipsed only by the former orange in chief

[Hoyt]

9. Kind of hard to talk about "Democracy" when we want to limit speech. And if we don't learn how

to respond to misleading comments, misinformation, out right lies, or just something we don't agree or like, we are in big trouble.

Now, I would have a problem if some social media platform won't allow people to post a rebuttal. Don't think that is the case with Twitter.

[AZProgressive]

11. Who wants to limit speech?

Twitter has rules and conservatives don’t follow them. It is as simple as that.

Musk says Twitter is biased against conservatives -- facts say otherwise

(Snip)

Even anecdotal evidence of supposed bias tends to evaporate under close examination. Yes, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube barred former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection. But while unprecedented, this response was justified by Trump’s repeated violation of platform rules against baselessly undermining election results and inciting violence.

Now, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale and the University of Exeter have released the first study that I’m aware of that takes an independent, empirical look at the bias claim. Twitter, they found, does tend to suspend Republican users far more frequently than Democrats. But that’s not necessarily because of partisan favoritism. Instead, it’s just as likely that Republicans were suspended because they tend to spread far more misinformation.

(Snip)

The study team scrutinized their subjects’ appetite for sharing misinformation, meaning provably false content such as phony COVID-19 cures or QAnon conspiracy theories. The researchers found that the Republican Twitter users shared “substantially more news from misinformation sites.” (Misinformation sites had been labeled as untrustworthy by either professional fact-checking organizations or surveys of politically balanced and demographically representative laypeople.)

“Critically,” the researchers said, “we found that users’ misinformation sharing was as predictive of suspension as was their political orientation. Thus, the observation that Republicans were more likely to be suspended than Democrats provides no support for the claim that Twitter showed political bias in its suspension practices. Instead, the observed asymmetry could be explained entirely by the tendency of Republicans to share more misinformation.”

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/3273956-musk-says-twitter-is-biased-against-conservatives-facts-say-otherwise/

There are some people I wish were still here at DU but they repeatedly violated the rules and aren’t allowed to come back. Conservatives should simply stop violating Twitter rules. My account hasn’t been banned there so it isn’t hard to follow the rules. Musk wants Twitter to be biased toward conservatives.

Also those that traffic in misinformation and conspiracy theories tend to be very toxic. Reply to 1 you may have a 100 MAGA replying to with troll gifs. It is much better to report and block.

[Hoyt]

13. Sorry, I don't care how despicable someone is, I'm not for banning them, alerting on them, etc.,

as long as there is another white box to set them straight (violent threats, and the like, should be removed).

I am fine with a big banner saying something like, "Be forewarned. This poster -- donald trump -- is a buffoon, racist, and maybe even worse, and tends to post BS on a number of topics including COVID, Russia, and the like."

[AZProgressive]

14. They put disclaimers on Trump Tweets for months

And he was still spreading election lies and Trump was eventually banned for repeated violations of the rules and inciting violence.

I personally don’t alert (I don’t even serve on juries) but when it comes to toxic trolls on Twitter reporting and blocking is the best advice.

[Hoyt]

17. Did trump's messages change your mind, incite you to violence, etc.? Probably not. Me either.

And I bet he didn't change the mind of one ignorant white wing A-hole either, they were like that long before trump.

Rebut, not ban (with some exceptions).

[PSPS]

15. A private platform can do anything they want, even "limiting speech."

People can argue about their preferred take on something not being posted but the fact is that there's nothing wrong with that. DU itself does the same thing. The first amendment doesn't apply to any private enterprise. If someone doesn't like it, they can start their own private platform and do their own "limiting speech" as they see fit.

Having a completely-open anything goes platform is the very definition of bannon's "flood the zone with shit" modus operandi.

[Hoyt]

19. Fully understant private platforms can ban anyone. Question is SHOULD THEY? Think not in most cases.

Fine with some rinky dink neighborhood website limiting members, removing posts, etc.

But Twitter is much bigger than that. I think they should be careful banning people, even though it is legal.

[PSPS]

12. "a margin loan secured against his shares in Tesla"

This, boys and girls, is how the plutocrats pay no taxes and why they get their wealth through "stock options." They never sell the stock because, oh no! That would be a taxable event! Instead, they live on these sweetheart "loans" and, as a bonus, they can bequeath their largess to someone who can sell all the stock without paying any taxes at all!

Musk really wants trump back in the game.

[WarGamer]

23. Trump has said he won't return to Twitter.

[PSPS]

16. How much of that "funding" is from russia/china/iran?

[chowder66]

22. Sounds like an insecure man's way of getting his rocks off.