What happens after Elon Musk acquires Twitter?

Responses after the acquisition offer was approved

On April 25, Reuters sources revealed that the leadership of Twitter accepted to sit at the negotiating table with the billionaire’s representative Elon Musk, and just a few hours later, the two sides came to an agreement. This is considered a big win for this billionaire, who once claimed he bought Twitter “not for financial reasons” but to promote freedom of expression.

This continued to be mentioned, in his first statement after the information was announced: “I hope even my strongest critics will stay on Twitter. Because that’s freedom of speech.”.

Billionaire Elon Musk continues to affirm the message of free speech after successfully acquiring Twitter (Source: Twitter)

Texas Governor Greg Abbott – where the electric car company Tesla just moved to the end of last year, also posted a congratulatory message on the deal, and urged Elon Musk to also move Twitter headquarters to Texas “along with Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Company” – the companies that the richest people in the world run.

American politics in general are quite divided about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Republican senators welcomed the deal, re-emphasizing the billionaire’s “free speech” stance, seeing it as a step against technology giants’ tightening of content censorship. . On the other hand, Democratic politicians are skeptical about whether Twitter under Elon Musk’s “reign” is ready to handle fake news or hate speech and violence.

Meanwhile, investment experts also gave a lot of analysis on how Elon Musk successfully made this seemingly “joke” deal. The key factor mentioned is the support of a series of financial giants, such as Morgan Stanley, Bank of America or Barclays, with commitments to pour more than 25 billion USD in loans for this deal, in addition to about $21 billion that Musk himself raised.

Elon Musk’s victory has a big contribution from investment giants like Morgan Stanley (Source: Reuters)

In the opposite direction, Twitter’s leadership has been stuck, because there is no “white knight” who offers a better offer than Elon Musk. While his offer of $54.20 per share is lower than Twitter’s share price in previous years, the company’s not-so-bright revenue outlook still convinces many shareholders that it’s the best option available. body.

Mr. Musk also has an important “ally” on Twitter’s board, although not directly involved in the deal – co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. Speaking after the deal, Mr. Dorsey admitted: “Twitter is my biggest regret, as it has fallen under the control of Wall Street and the advertising-based model. Pulling it off Wall Street is the first right step. Elon is the only solution. that I believe in, I believe in his mission”.

Former CEO Jack Dorsey considers Elon Musk “the only solution” to revive Twitter (Source: Fox Business)

Although Elon Musk has not officially owned Twitter, this deal has also immediately been “in the sights” of European authorities. High Commissioner for Internal Market Therry Breton affirmed: “Whether it’s cars or social media, companies operating in Europe must comply with our regulations, no matter who the owners are. Mr. Musk understands this very well.”.

Compared to the US, the European Union (EU) is much more aggressive in regulating the technology world. Over the weekend, the bloc gave the green light to a new draft called the “Digital Services Act”, which aims to force Internet companies to tighten control of content to protect users.

Unanswered questions

Even if Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter is a reality, analysts are still quite skeptical about the next impact after this deal.

The first question is how the billionaire will raise with the $ 21 billion in private capital that he has committed. Despite being the richest person on the planet, Mr. Musk currently only has about $3 billion in cash, and he may have to sell shares in Tesla to raise enough money. This possibility has caused Tesla’s stock price to plummet more than 12% in the past session, wiping away $ 126 billion in market capitalization.

Tesla shares plummeted due to concerns that Elon Musk would sell shares to raise money to buy Twitter (Source: CNBC)

An issue was also mentioned very early, that is how Elon Musk will manage Twitter, while also being the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and a number of other technology startups. He previously said that he was “sharing his time equally between Tesla and SpaceX”.

The possibility that he will delegate the management of Twitter to an independent board, like billionaire Jeff Bezos with the Washington Post newspaper has been mentioned. The billionaire’s supporters are optimistic, given the fact that despite a very busy schedule, both Tesla and SpaceX under his control are getting very impressive results.

Another question is what will happen to Twitter’s executive team after this deal. Current CEO Parag Agrawal has only been in office a few months after taking back the position from Jack Dorsey, but he soon coped with the storms of dizzying steps from the billionaire, from buying shares to agreeing to a family. joined the board, changed his mind, and then offered to buy the entire company. According to Bloomberg, he will remain in office until the transfer is complete, but after that, nothing is certain.

The new era Twitter is also said to be much “lighter” with content moderation like Elon Musk’s vision. This makes many people expect the company to lift the ban forever with former President Donald Trump. However, the 45th President of the United States has confirmed that he will not return to Twitter, despite supporting the deal: “I support Elon buying Twitter, because he’s a good guy and will bring a lot of reform to it. But I will continue with this. [mạng xã hội] Truth”. Mr. Trump said he will officially open an account on Truth Social – the private social network he founded next week.

Former President Donald Trump said he would not return to Twitter even though the ban was lifted (Source: Reuters)

Changing owners could also be a major change for Twitter’s team of more than 7,000 employees. In a meeting after the deal, the company’s management announced that the welfare policy would remain in place for 1 year, and the employee bonuses with bonus stock options would be converted to cash when the deal was completed. socks.

However, plans for new hires or downsizing the team, especially when the company makes changes to the way it operates, such as reducing content moderation, has not been mentioned. The leadership also does not have a clear answer to this problem, especially when they are also struggling to find answers for themselves.

“It’s been a volatile period and we don’t have all the information on everything. After the deal closes, we don’t know what direction the company will take.” – CEO Agrawal admitted.

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