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this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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Does anyone else consider it plausible that flushing $44 billion is worth the cost if it removes that meddlesome social media platform that activists rely on to syndicate human rights abuses and document all the other terrible stuff that happens around the world?
There's something way sketch about this entire narrative
Or, Elon Musk is just an idiot doing the same idiot things he's always done.
Bingo.
That dick bag tried to rinse and repeat the same BS management strategy he used at a car company on a tech company and wouldn't you know, it's cratering right before or eyes.
Shocking.
Why can't it be both? Maybe he's a tool of someone, hell, he's already a tool so 1/2 the work's been done
This absolutely feels like a Hanlon's razor type situation especially given what we have learned about Elon musk over the last 5 or so years. The whole evil genius shtick just doesn't fly anymore. He's an idiot who just happens to have made enough good or lucky business decisions in the past to get him where he is now.
It's impossible to say what anything is worth to a person who can lose 44 billion dollars and still have so much money left that the next 10 generations of their lineage won't ever have to work again.
It's insane to think of that as a trivial amount of money, but musk could literally lose 99% of his money and it wouldn't impact his life at all, except for his hobby of bankrupting corporations.
As obscenely wealthy as he is, that wealth comes from bis assets not cash in hand. $20B of the $44B paid was cash, some of which was from selling some of his Tesla shares. Further to that, Tesla stock dropped so significantly it caused his net worth to drop by a further $30B.
So as a result he’s no longer so rich he could do it all again and still have more money than he could possibly spend in hundreds of lifetimes? No? Still super rich? Then it’s not really a meaningful distinction.
I disagree. It's impossible to say for sure either way but it's plausible his personal wealth could be wiped out, could be forced to divest his stakes in his own companies, etc.
Which would still leave him insanely rich, so the answer you are looking for is "no, elon musk is not taking any actual personal risk here at all."
I'm not sure how being forced to divest in your own companies to meet debt obligations would leave you insanely rich so we'll just agree to disagree here.
Because divesting means selling, which means.that you get money in exchange for property. How do you not understand this?
Because divesting in order to meet debt obligations means that with that money you have to immediately use it to pay debts that you owe to others, therefore you no longer have the money nor the assets. Is it really that hard to understand? If a bank foreclosures on your house it means that your property is sold and the money from the sale goes to the bank to pay off the loan.
Again, none of that impacts him in any way apart from losing the ability to literally just do it again.
I don't think so because another platform will pop up eventually. It's too much money for a short term thing
It's probably a combination. He considered buying it for reasons including the above. He didn't intend to pay $44 billion or actually buy the company. He didn't intend to ruin it.
That sounds like a "tomorrow" problem for short-term thinking autocratic assholes
Eventually could be a while, and during that time they don't have to worry. Also, without it fully tanking and limping along, many will stay and have stayed. This removes the need for an immediate replacement and hurts the possible success of one as celebrities, companies, artists, etc can and do just stay on Twitter.
I don't consider that plausible. I think must didn't really want to buy Twitter but fucked up and was forced to.
I think sabotage was his intent all along
Except that seems exceptionally stupid, why in the world would he waste that much money to take down a platform that can and is already being replaced by competitors?
I think y'all are conspiracy crazy
I'm far from conspiracy land lol, just speculating
Did he actually paid 44B of his own money? How much of the money came from saudi investors and twitter leverage debt?
I don't think the exact amount is known, but he got money from a lot of sources and the bulk of it was Elon's own money (or at least, his own assets). He also sourced a lot of money from other American billionaires (Larry Ellison for example).
It's likely the Saudis invested very little... although they did invest enough that Elon has to have given them something in return.
Nobody involved in that purchase expected to make money on it. The price was far too high.
Ya I want some clarification on what he actually fucking paid and what came out of what accounts or if this is all on-paper whoreshit
There are other social media platforms so I don't really see it. I just think Musk is a narcissist, egotist and utter hypocrite whose big mouth and lack of due diligence compelled him to buy the platform. And it turns out he's really terrible at running a social media platform.
For a lot of activists and oppressive governments, though, its all about like the short-term. If you get killed because of Twitters current bullshit or you can't be as affective by using it as a digital-bullhorn to maybe effect change in a more peaceful way, its not as relevant to you personally and your persecutor de jour if Mastodon blows up and becomes the actual Next-Twitter
Maybe?
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