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Elon Musk Bought Twitter to Settle His Jet-Tracking Beef, New Book Claims (gizmodo.com)

submitted 9 months ago by AnActOfCreation@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Elon Musk purchased shares of Twitter after unsuccessfully petitioning the CEO to remove a Twitter account tracking his private jet.
Musk's personal gripes played a key role in his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
Musk banned the account after promising not to, highlighting his prioritization of getting his way over free speech.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/ttBv9

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[–] Red_October@lemmy.world 247 points 9 months ago (19 children)

Yeah, no. Musk bought Twitter because he HAD to. He very publicly made comments about buying Twitter at absolute meme-stock prices, but didn't disclose that he already owned a LOT of Twitter stock. So, when his comments predictably increased the price of Twitter stock, he had two choices: Either it was just talk, and he was BLATANTLY guilty of stock manipulation and the Feds put a target on his back, or he acts like he totally meant it.

So he went with option two, acted like he was serious and wanted to buy twitter. Then he tried everything he could think of to kill the deal, accusing Twitter of all sorts of wrongdoing and lies, but Twitter was more careful than that. They got their shit right, and Musk couldn't back out. So he bought Twitter, rather than go to prison.

The fact that he could also kill the tracking twitter account was completely incidental. Musk is an idiot, but even he isn't that stupid. Musk initially offered $5,000 to the account holder to stop, and then balked at the return offer for $50,000. Now, I may not be a billionaire tech-bro, but I'm pretty sure that spending $50,000 to achieve a goal is preferable to spending $44,000,000,000. He's dumb, but he's not that dumb.

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 32 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Ah so Musk was trying to increase his profits super publicly and super illegally.

[–] Red_October@lemmy.world 31 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I honestly don't think he was TRYING to do anything but shitpost. It didn't look like a well thought out plan, it looked like an idiot talking out of his ass and realizing that his memes were also crimes.

[–] powerage@lemmy.ml 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Elon is the kinda guy to put the meme before the horse

Or however that goes

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