By Billionaire and potential Twitter buyer Elon Musk showed up at the company’s headquarters on Wednesday with a porcelain sink in tow and tweeted, “Entering Twitter HQ – let it sink in!”
Even though Musk tweeted a video on Thursday claiming that the purchase of Twitter was complete, the deadline for the $44 billion transaction to take Twitter private is this coming Friday. Representatives from the Soical media app and Musk declined to comment, although the company did verify that Musk’s video message was authentic. Musk updated his profile to include the title “Chief Twit” and a new location: Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco.
Elon Musk, who is worth an estimated $44 billion, entered Twitter Inc’s San Francisco headquarters on Wednesday, a few days before the court-ordered deadline to finalize his purchase of the social media company. According to the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed “people familiar with the situation,” banks have begun sending $13 billion in cash supporting Musk’s buyout of a social media app, a sign that the transaction is on pace to conclude by the end of the week. According to the article, Musk will have access to the cash by Friday afternoon after all closing conditions have been satisfied.
On Wednesday, October 26, Elon Musk posted a video to his account showing him touring the company’s headquarters in San Francisco (California). He then updated his profile to refer to himself as “Chief Twit” and to his current location as the same building he had previously suggested should be shut down and turned into a homeless shelter due to the low number of employees who were physically present due to Twitter’s remote work policy. He was seen lugging a sink across the foyer.
If the acquisition is finalized this week, it will end a roller coaster of drama gripping the IT industry. However, this would likely represent the beginning of a time of profound transformation inside the firm, with far-reaching consequences.
No one knows what Musk will do now that he is CEO. It is expected that under his leadership, Twitter’s restrictions would be relaxed, and substantial savings would be made. He has toyed with Republican talking tropes, such as raging against Twitter’s “left-wing” employees, pushing for greater “free speech” on the network, and indicating he may overturn former President Donald Trump’s permanent ban, perhaps even before the November midterm elections.
Less certain will become of the billions of cash investors who would gain equity in Twitter have promised to Musk. From Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and other tech industry colleagues who shared Musk’s vision for the app’s future to funds owned by the Middle Eastern monarchy, Musk’s first roster of equity investors was diverse.
Since Musk announced his $54.20 per share bid six months ago, there has been a dramatic back-and-forth in which the social media app first resisted the deal by adopting a poison pill and then sued the world’s richest man after he announced plans to abandon the offer due to concerns about spam accounts on the platform.
What Plans Musk Have For Twitter
The 51-year-old Musk has been somewhat tight-lipped about his vision for the social networking site. Although he has made statements in favor of free speech and against spam bots since agreeing to purchase the firm in April, his plans on either issue are unclear.
Musk has offered a variety of (sometimes conflicting) suggestions on how to increase popularity and revenue. The three broad categories are rule changes, added functionality, and cost reduction.
Musk has proposed many enhancements to gain more users and make more money. Ideas may be as broad as adding a payment mechanism to Twitter and proclaiming it “X, the everything app,” or as specific as letting users choose their recommender systems. He proposes adding encryption to direct communications and enhancing Twitter Blue, the premium membership tier, maybe even enabling users to pay for the blue “verified” checkmark.
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