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Elon Musk's Twitter Acquisition, Here is What Happened

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Silence looms over the bird community during the summer, leaving one little blue bird, who tweets his way about in his social media. Twitter is once again in the headlines today, after technoking Elon Musk bought the platform recently. Twitter started its journey in 2006, when Jack Dorsey, former Twitter co-founder, launched the platform as a SMS-based communication tool among his group to stay connected with each other. Dorsey presented the platform to Odeo’s, a podcasting company, co-founders, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, who gave him the go-sign to innovate the platform further. The microblogging platform went on a rocky evolution with a change of three CEOs in one year, including a product of conflicts played out in the boardroom clashes and backroom meetings, while the platform’s value became more apparent to its founders and the world. What was originally intended as a platform to encourage free speech grew as a dagger to launch hate speech and opinions hurting the sentiments of others. Countries threw in their set of regulations and of course the feminist and other social justice groups of the world with their’s and the platform’s algorithm became more controlled.

Clearly why, technoking, Elon Musk, founder, CEO, and chief engineer at SpaceX, angel investor, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla, is acquiring Twitter to “build a social network that doesn’t censor anyone”, he spoke at the TED 2022. He said, “Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it is just really important that people have the reality and the perception that they can speak freely within the bounds of the law”.

Additionally, Musk has expressed how the microblogging platform is engulfed in unfair politics, which can be seen through its employees and here’s how.

Twitter’s Political Donations
Employees at Twitter continue to donate 99 percent of their political donations to Democratic campaigns and committees in the run-up to the midterm elections. According to Federal Election Commission data, employees of the micro blogging giant have distributed 1225 donations totaling $ 72,296 through ActBlue, the Democrats' key fundraising tool.

According to the documents, only ten gifts totaling $ 505 were routed through WinRed, the Republicans' fundraising platform, from Twitter employees through the end of March.

In just over six months before the 2022 elections, Twitter employees have maintained their astounding pace of contributing 99 percent of their earnings to Democratic candidates and groups.

This gives more proof to Musk’s statement about Twitter being a politicized platform and his fight to make it ‘politically neutral’ to preserve trust. Musk has stated that he wishes to bring Tesla to the political centre.

I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it, said Musk

In fact, the board of directors of Twitter, which accepted Elon Musk's $ 44 billion offer for the firm has also donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats in recent elections.

“For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally”, tweeted Musk.

"Twitter openly censors speech based on political ideologies and makes a mockery of our Constitutional liberties," Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz tweeted after the deal was announced.

Republican lawmakers, who frequently accuse Twitter for unfair censoring of right-leaning accounts and individuals, applauded Musk's purchase of the company.

"If Elon Musk can turn that around to actually protect free speech and encourage open discourse, Twitter's full potential will be unlocked," Cruz said.

Meanwhile, Democrats claim that the platform is not anti-conservative. Liberal columnist, Paul M. Barrett called out the republicans for continually criticizing Twitter for its censorship, when they enjoy ‘high levels of engagement’ and popularity on the platform.
With all that power, it is only natural that the Twitter board invites Musk onto its platform. However, Musk declined the offer denoting that he has other plans in mind.

From Fighting Musk to Accepting Musk
The technoking made it clear that he isn’t in it for the money, “this is not a way to make money; my strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization; I don’t care about the economics at all”.

But here’s what happened, Musk prepared a tender offer for Twitter. Egon Durban, a co-chief executive of the private equity company Silver Lake, who had worked with Musk, was a potential ally on Twitter's board. Durban, on the other hand, made it clear to the board that Silver Lake would not partner with Musk to fund a buyout. Musk met with Taylor, imposing him to take his offer to Twitter's shareholders directly, without expressly stating that he would launch a hostile bid.

The board of directors of Twitter came to the conclusion that they needed to do a deal with Musk. Board members agreed that the firm could not reach $ 54.20 a share on its own, and that no white knight was on the way.

Twitter's advisers focused on transaction safeguards such as a breakup fee if Musk walks away and a six-month timeframe to close the purchase, which may be crucial if technology stocks continue to tumble. Musk's advisers hammered out the financial specifics, with the technoking personally signing off on each item.

Elon Musk Conquers Tech Giant Twitter
Twitter stockholders will get $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock they possess when the proposed deal closes, according to the terms of the agreement. The purchase price is a 38 percent premium to Twitter's closing stock price on April 1, 2022, the final trading day before Mr. Musk revealed his roughly nine percent ownership in the company.

Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CEO, said, “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” said Mr. Musk. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

Twitter's financial advisors are Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan, and Allen & Co., while legal counsel is Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. Mr. Musk's primary financial advisor is Morgan Stanley. Financial advisors BofA Securities and Barclays are also involved. Legal counsel is provided by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP."



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