Elon Musk buys $3 billion stake (9.2%) in Twitter and is now the platform's largest shareholder

[Anonymous]

Prediction: Twitter gets banned in the EU because Elon will refuse to follow their Big Tech competition and disinformation laws.

This valuation is such a bad deal for the banks underwriting this acquisition. Good luck to all, including TSLA shareholders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In all fairness, a lot of the changes Elon wants to make would likely decimate Twitter's finances. He wants to get rid of advertising, which composes something like 95% of Twitter's revenue. People don't want to pay subscriptions for social media, yet he insists that's how he wants Twitter to move forward. Advertisers will leave the platform if content moderation is discontinued, as everything turns into sh#tposting culture war nonsense.

For those underwriting this transaction, likely the largest privatization deal in corporate history - how do they see any value? This looks like a crazy risky deal with very little financial upside.

There are a lot of loans involved. As earlier disclosed, there is a bunch of secured financing. They'll just get interest and principal. The bridge loans will be in and out in a week to 10 days. The unsecured financing? Hope?

Are you the "gossamer finance" PP? Maybe hold on to your expert opinions...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can the government perhaps step in to seize Twitter (to nationalize it in effect) in order to prevent the disinformation and unbridled chaos that social media has caused and has since 2018 destroyed democracy?

Private companies can censor. The US government can't. Nationalizing would make the problem even worse with disinformation.

You want NPR or PBS(or their ideological counterparts) controlling Twitter? I'm sure there are some people who would say yes, but Elon Musk isn't one of them.

This is a great win for Democracy and freedom of thought/speech. Can't wait for the 2022 mid-terms and the 2024 elections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can the government perhaps step in to seize Twitter (to nationalize it in effect) in order to prevent the disinformation and unbridled chaos that social media has caused and has since 2018 destroyed democracy?

Private companies can censor. The US government can't. Nationalizing would make the problem even worse with disinformation.

You want NPR or PBS(or their ideological counterparts) controlling Twitter? I'm sure there are some people who would say yes, but Elon Musk isn't one of them.

This is a great win for Democracy and freedom of thought/speech. Can't wait for the 2022 mid-terms and the 2024 elections.

Why, so you all can harass trans people on Twitter? Huge win bro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poison pill is still in place, right?

That's only for a hostile bid. Right now, there isn't a hostile bid out there. Twitter is actively negotiating with Musk. Probably stuck on form of consideration and break up fee.

So if Musk can't close the deal, he will need to pay Twitter a breakage fee?

The problem I see now is that Musk may get caught in a price spiral, if he can't secure enough investors to sell at $54.

Will Musk have to sell his stake in Tesla to make this happen?

He's mostly loading up Twitter with debt and issuing new equity to fund this. He will be using his TLSA shares and pledging them to banks as collateral for about $12.5 in loans.

"$13 billion in financing to the Reporting Person and related entities as follows:
(a) a senior secured term loan facility in an aggregate principal amount of $6.5 billion, - Loan from a bank or other investor that will be secured against Twitter's assets
(b) a senior secured revolving facility in an aggregate committed amount of $500 million, - Loan from a bank or other investor that will be secured against Twitter's assets
(c) a senior secured bridge loan facility in an aggregate principal amount of up to $3 billion and - Loan from a bank or other investor that will be secured against Twitter's assets
(d) a senior unsecured bridge loan facility in an aggregate principal amount of up to $3 billion" - Loan from a bank or other investor that is unsecured, but owed by Twitter

". . .$12.5 billion in margin loans..." - Elon pledging his TSLA shares or other assets to a bank/investor in exchange for cash to fund the purchase

"...[and] the Reporting Person has committed to provide equity financing...expected to be approximately $21 billion" Cash from Elon and/or new shares issued by Elon to raise capital to finish the purchase


Good reading on this topic:
https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/21/we-just-found-out-how-elon-musk-may-finance-his-43b-twitter-bid/
https://www.barrons.com/articles/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-twitter-financing-51650118671

This is probably Elon's riskiest business move to date. If TSLA stocks downturns, he will be facing massive margin calls for tens of billions in personal loans.

Love all the rhetoric of how this will be a bad business move in an attempt
to silence him. I predict Twitter will be popular again.

Huh? Musk had to pay $44 *billion*. That’s not popular? Just a thought but maybe what Twitter was doing was making it more popular and turning it into a swamp of right-wing disinformation and agitprop will make it less popular.

[Anonymous]

Love Elon! Look forward to more balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love Elon! Look forward to more balance.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love Elon! Look forward to more balance.

+1

Isn’t he the billionaire who called the British guy involved in rescuing the boys from the cave in Thailand a ‘pedo’ on twitter? Is that the sort of balance you want?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love Elon! Look forward to more balance.

I don't know how anybody wouldn't agree with this. Or the below tweet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love Elon! Look forward to more balance.

+1

Isn’t he the billionaire who called the British guy involved in rescuing the boys from the cave in Thailand a ‘pedo’ on twitter? Is that the sort of balance you want?

He probably doesn't want this picture disseminated on Twitter
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/musk-maxwell-photo/

[Anonymous]

Obviously Twitter was not a bedrock for functioning democracy when it was misused to incite a violent insurrection based on lies and that very nearly succeeded.

Ok in terms of necessary limits on freedom of speech (from anyone from either party), there should be bans against
- Inciting violence
- verifiable lies
- race based hate mongering
- gender based hate mongering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can the government perhaps step in to seize Twitter (to nationalize it in effect) in order to prevent the disinformation and unbridled chaos that social media has caused and has since 2018 destroyed democracy?

Private companies can censor. The US government can't. Nationalizing would make the problem even worse with disinformation.

You want NPR or PBS(or their ideological counterparts) controlling Twitter? I'm sure there are some people who would say yes, but Elon Musk isn't one of them.

This is a great win for Democracy and freedom of thought/speech. Can't wait for the 2022 mid-terms and the 2024 elections.

A megalomaniac billionaire buys what is essentially now a public utility and you call that a win for democracy?

[Anonymous]

Will he buy Truth Social next and impose “free speech” on them, too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can the government perhaps step in to seize Twitter (to nationalize it in effect) in order to prevent the disinformation and unbridled chaos that social media has caused and has since 2018 destroyed democracy?

Private companies can censor. The US government can't. Nationalizing would make the problem even worse with disinformation.

You want NPR or PBS(or their ideological counterparts) controlling Twitter? I'm sure there are some people who would say yes, but Elon Musk isn't one of them.

This is a great win for Democracy and freedom of thought/speech. Can't wait for the 2022 mid-terms and the 2024 elections.

A megalomaniac billionaire buys what is essentially now a public utility and you call that a win for democracy?

How is it any different than Bezos buying WaPo? Or is Musk just the "wrong kind" of billionaire?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will he buy Truth Social next and impose “free speech” on them, too?

I think Musk's spare change in his pocket would be enough to buy that. Why would he bother?