This Could Be Twitter's Future, Now That Elon Musk Has Funding Secured
Elon Musk isn't letting go of his dream of owning Twitter, and by extension, the source of all memes making fun of Elon Musk. Twitter has been making rounds in the news lately due to ongoing drama related to Tesla mogul Elon Musk's suggested takeover attempt of the social media giant earlier in April 2022. At that time, Twitter's board of directors responded by penning a poison pill plan to essentially wash Musk out of the running for complete ownership. For those unaware, Musk has been a 9.2% shareholder since he made a sizable purchase of Twitter shares on March 14.
The aforementioned poison pill option readied by Twitter will come into effect if Musk or any other shareholder attempts to acquire 15% or more of Twitter's outstanding common stock, and will allow all other shareholders to purchase the remaining stock at a discounted price. As The National Law Review explains it, such an action would result in a steep drop in share value for all shareholders, but it would at least keep the existing board in charge for the short term.
However, any financial levies created by Twitter's poison pill may not be enough to slow Musk to a halt. According to the SEC on April 20, Elon Musk is now making another play at purchasing the majority of Twitter shares, and the NY Times reported on April 21 that these commitments are worth $46.5 billion. Approximately $21 billion of this is reportedly coming directly out of his own pocket. By comparison, Twitter's total market cap is valued at $35.67 billion according to the NYSE as quoted by Google Finance as of 1 PM Central Time on April 22, 2022.
How a Musk-owned Twitter might work
If Musk's allegedly hostile takeover of Twitter takes effect, it could come with some drastic changes to how the social media service works. Elon Musk has already tweeted plans to "defeat the spam bots or die trying!" which is certainly a noble goal. In a follow-up tweet, he then pledged to "authenticate all real humans." It's difficult to argue that either development would be bad for Twitter's users, who are commonly seen asking for both of these things, albeit to little avail.
However, there's ample reason to believe that Musk could abuse control of the service as well. Tesla employees have continuously reported poor treatment while working at various facilities, some citing brutal harassment by employers due to racism amid generally poor working conditions. These allegations go all the way back to 2017.
Despite having over 82.9 million Twitter followers, Elon Musk is often mocked around the Internet for losing face in online conversations that often take place on Twitter itself. Elon Musk's current net worth is estimated to be over $300+ billion, but he's taken heat for a laundry list of controversial deeds that include union-busting, spreading COVID-19 misinformation, and investing nearly all of his exorbitant resources into SpaceX and Tesla rather than solving ordinary problems for ordinary people — those who are more concerned with feeding their families than they are with saving up for a new electric vehicle or a tour of outer space.