This serial reversal “drama” has finally come to an end.Welcome to the WeChat subscription number of “Sina Technology”: techsina
Author / Liu Yan
Source: AI Front (ID: ai-front)
The boots finally landed
On October 28, according to the New York Times, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and many other foreign media reports, Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has been completed. The $44 billion acquisition is finally coming to an end.
Musk closed the deal ahead of a court-imposed deadline to close the deal. If Twitter is not acquired by October 28, he will face a lawsuit.
Earlier, a Delaware judge presiding over the lawsuit between the two parties ruled that Musk’s deal to buy Twitter expires on October 28. Delaware Chancery Court President Kathaleen McCormick wrote: “This action will continue until 5 p.m. on October 28, 2022 to allow the parties to close the transaction.” Kathaleen McCormick said that if the transaction occurs before that date and time Not completed, a new trial date will be set for November.
As the deadline looms, there are growing signs that the deal is moving towards a successful completion on time.
Musk reportedly sent borrowing notices to lenders that provided debt financing for the deal late Tuesday, and the banks began signing documents and transferring funds.
On October 27th, Musk made a surprising move. According to a video posted by Musk on Twitter, he walked into Twitter headquarters with a sink in his hands and wrote, “Walk into Twitter headquarters and think about this.” Some people think that the move implies that his acquisition of Twitter is a foregone conclusion.
Earlier, advertisers raised concerns about the upcoming Musk-led Twitter. The Wall Street Journal reported that many advertisers were concerned about his plans to scale back content moderation and potential conflicts of interest. On October 28, on the eve of the acquisition, Musk assured advertisers that he intends to buy Twitter.
Trading in the social media platform’s shares will be suspended on Friday, according to the NYSE website.
However, many analysts believe that Musk is now paying too much for the company, given the decline in the value of many U.S. tech stocks this year and the fact that Twitter has now struggled to attract users and its growth has slowed. On a recent earnings call, Musk also acknowledged that Twitter is “a chronically languid asset with incredible potential, although clearly myself and other investors are overpaying for Twitter right now. cost”.
Dismissal of the original team, or will promote large layoffs
As his “first fire” since he took over as the official owner of the social media platform. Musk fired key Twitter executives.
According to foreign media reports, Musk fired former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett and head of legal policy, trust and safety Vijaya Gadde.
Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and Treasurer Ned Segal have left the company’s San Francisco headquarters and will not be returning, the sources said.
Musk has long had entanglements with Twitter executives. Musk has previously criticized Gadde on social platforms. Musk has also had an argument with Parag Agrawal during his legal battle with Twitter.
Now, Musk has updated his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit.”
Recently, there have also been media reports that Musk plans to launch a large-scale layoff plan for Twitter. On October 21, The Washington Post reported, citing interviews and internal documents, that Musk told potential investors in the Twitter deal that he planned to lay off 7,500 of the social media company’s 7,500 employees after the acquisition. nearly 75% of the company’s workforce, reducing the company’s workforce from 7,500 to just 2,000.
In response, Twitter employees expressed strong disapproval in the letter. Twitter employees are asking Musk to promise to keep Twitter’s current workforce if his takeover is successful. Twitter employees say that as employees, they deserve specific commitments so that they can continue to maintain the integrity of the Twitter platform. They concluded in the letter: “We demand to be treated with dignity, not as pawns in the billionaire game.”
But according to a report by Bloomberg on the 27th, Musk told Twitter employees that he did not plan to lay off 75% of the workforce.
In fact, Musk has repeatedly mentioned that he wants to make significant layoffs after the acquisition of Twitter.
In a June Q&A with Twitter employees, Musk expressed the need to “rationalize headcount,” adding: “Any employee who makes a significant contribution to Twitter should have nothing to worry about.” Musk’s remarks will clearly make Twitter Employees are apprehensive. In response, Twitter informed employees that there are no company-wide layoffs.
Back in late April, Musk told banks as he negotiated a deal for the Twitter acquisition that he would focus on the social media company’s profits and floated the idea of cutting costs and laying off workers at the same time, according to people familiar with the matter. He did not elaborate on which departments or positions might be affected. In addition, according to people familiar with the matter, Musk has been looking for a new CEO for Twitter, whose identity has not been disclosed. Musk told the bank that backed its acquisition of Twitter that he would control pay levels for the social media platform’s employees.
However, the layoffs have not yet begun, and many Twitter employees have left voluntarily.
On August 25, Twitter said that as the company faced a series of challenges, including a lawsuit with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and the revelation of “whistleblower” Peiter Zatko, more and more employees began to resign. Twitter’s current employee turnover rate is 18.3 percent, Twitter executives told employees at a company all-hands meeting. By comparison, before Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, Twitter’s attrition rate hovered between 14% and 16%, roughly in line with competitors’ attrition rates.
Musk asks Tesla engineers to review Twitter code
According to Bloomberg, Musk yesterday invited Tesla engineers to meet with product leaders at Twitter headquarters to dig into the Twitter code.
At Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Thursday, Twitter’s head of product showed Tesla engineers the company’s code so they could evaluate and explain to Musk what the company needed, according to a person familiar with the matter.
As of noon that day, Twitter engineers could no longer change the code, the people said. This is to ensure there are no changes to the product until the deal closes, the people said. The people declined to be named because the process is not public. Twitter imposed a similar freeze when it first announced the deal in April.
Musk tweeted that his interest in Twitter has nothing to do with making money. Musk said he bought Twitter “to help the people I love” and wanted “civilizations to have a common digital town square.”
In April, Musk said at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver that the Twitter algorithm should be open-sourced to avoid any kind of “behind the scenes manipulation.” Musk believes that Twitter should open source its source code for public scrutiny. “The code should be on GitHub so it can be checked, I just think it’s important to the democratic nature of the US and other countries,” he said. “If we can increase trust in Twitter as a public platform, the civility risk will be reduced.”
Musk also announced that his plans for Twitter include “X, the app for everything.” Some believe such super-apps could be similar to WeChat, the Chinese social app.
Musk has said he plans to reconsider Twitter’s content moderation policy in favor of a more extreme “free speech” approach. He disagreed with Twitter’s move to permanently ban those who repeatedly violated its rules, raising the possibility that some previously-banned users would reappear on the platform.
The long road to acquisition
This acquisition has been going on for a long time, and there have been constant twists and turns during the period, and any bells and whistles can quickly occupy major news headlines.
Musk’s idea to buy Twitter first started in January, when he started buying Twitter shares regularly, and by mid-March he had amassed a 5% stake in the company.
Musk, who became Twitter’s largest shareholder in April, proposed to take Twitter private for $44 billion. On April 14, Musk updated his 13D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which showed that Musk offered to acquire Twitter’s issued common stock in cash for $54.20 per share. Musk sent a letter to Twitter on April 13 with a proposal to buy “all of the issued common stock of Twitter not owned by Musk” for $54.20 per share, the document said.
At the time, Twitter confirmed in a press release that it had received the unsolicited proposal from Musk. Twitter said the board will carefully review the proposal to make a course of action that is in the best interest of the company and all shareholders.
By May, however, Musk began to backtrack. He didn’t want to, citing Twitter’s failure to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts on the platform.
Twitter then took him to court, asking Twitter to honor the deal, arguing that he was obligated to complete the deal even if he changed his mind. The case is expected to go to trial in October.
What followed was a legal battle between the two sides, with Twitter and Musk engaged in rounds of mutual exclusion through their lawyers.
On July 8, Musk sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Twitter’s legal department, making it clear that he would terminate the $44 billion deal to buy Twitter.
On the evening of August 30, according to Bloomberg and other foreign media reports, Musk submitted a notice to terminate the Twitter acquisition. Musk has sent a letter to Twitter highlighting other reasons for terminating the deal, an SEC filing said.
On September 13, Twitter Inc. shareholders voted to approve Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $44 billion proposal to buy the company and take it private.
In early October, Musk changed his mind, saying that if Twitter dropped the lawsuit, he wanted to buy Twitter for the original price of $54.20 per share. Distrusting Musk’s motives, Twitter’s lawyers said the Tesla CEO’s “offer is an invitation to further mischief and delay.”
A Delaware Chancery Court judge ultimately ruled that Musk must have until Oct. 28 to complete the Twitter deal or go to trial.
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