From Amac, and Shawn Harris:
On April 4, Musk, a longtime critic of Twitter policies like permanent bans on users and perceived targeting of politically disfavored content, revealed that he had purchased a 9.2% stake in the company, making him the largest individual shareholder. Shortly thereafter, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced that Musk had been offered a seat on the platform’s Board of Directors. But just hours later, Parag posted a message to Twitter saying that Musk had declined the Board position, leading many to speculate that the world’s richest man had decided that perhaps the platform was beyond saving.
But then, on Thursday, Musk offered to buy Twitter outright for $54.20 a share (considerably higher than the current stock price of around $45, which itself was artificially high due to speculation following Musk’s investment). In his offer, Musk stated that the site needed to be “transformed as a private company” – a move that was celebrated by conservatives and free-speech advocates. Notably, Musk added that if his offer was not accepted, he would need to “reconsider” his position as a shareholder.
My read is that Elon Musk is going to be taking over Twitter regardless of what the board has to say about it initially.
It’s not the poison pills are all that unusual in the world of corporate takeovers. It happens all the time. The problem in this situation is that the board has to prove to any lawsuit that might be coming down the pike that what they are doing is honoring their fiduciary responsibility to grow the stock for the shareholders. Since Musk has already offered a price way above market value it’s going to be more than a little difficult to prove that continuing to muzzle free speech as they have been doing for their own political reasons is going to serve that purpose at all, much less well.
While I acknowledge that the securities and exchange commission is dominated by leftists as well, it’s my view that this poison pill plan is not going to withstand any kind of a court challenge.
As to the reaction on the streets, and the why of the Twitter boards reaction, that’s pretty much obvious, also;
The Left intuitively understands, though, that in order for this to work, they must control the dissemination of information. If their narrative is challenged, it will quickly crumple, and along with it their hold on power. Censorship and cancel culture thus become survival mechanisms, in part explaining the assertions from the Left in recent years that speech which runs counter to the leftist worldview is tantamount to physical violence and grounds for expulsion from every public platform. By promising to return some modicum of free and open debate to the platform, Musk has threatened to bring the whole thing crashing down.
And that’s really what this is all about. Control of the public square. That’s what it’s always been about. Zucker book, Twitter, these supposed mainstream media, all of them run and filtered by the left. Controlled by the left. Anyone who dares threaten that control, (which would include Donald Trump, on down to yours truly)… elicits a visceral hatred from the usual suspects, who instinctively understand that without total control over the message, they will lose.
And when this all settles out that’s exactly what’s going to happen here.
