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TWTR is up 24% pre-market. I don't think there's much that Musk can do to increase Twitter's revenue, but at least the market seems to believe that he can hype
by ckastner 5y ago
TWTR is up 24% pre-market.
I don't think there's much that Musk can do to increase Twitter's revenue, but at least the market seems to believe that he can hype this one beyond reasonable valuations, too.
- sudden_dystopia 5y agoI don’t think he cares about revenue. I think he is trying to build a majority share and then take the company private. It is the very fact that twitter is a public company to begin with, that is pushing it to extremes. Social media companies should be banned from the stock market.
- chasd00 5y agoIf he takes it private then maybe he could just turn it off and walk away. That would be a huge contribution to society.
- arlcode 5y agoGiven the significance to some politicians I can imagine that they would intervene if it came to that. Musk has to take care to not overplay his hand.
- pyronik19 5y ago"It's a private company" has been the excuse for the abusive censorship. Are you saying if someone has right wing leanings on free speech that politicians will now change their tune and threaten it?
- arlcode 5y agoNot at all (under the assumption that a possible Twitter under Elon Musk would continue to adhere to local laws). But trying to shut down a platform which is considered (by some) "critical infrastructure" might find you in a position where regulations restrict what you can do. It's not a certainty but a possibility that this might happen (regardless of who is in power at the time.) Many politicians of different leanings use Twitter for communication.
- sgt 5y agoBut a new Twitter would pop up within a month. It would be called something else that would be easily to remember like Tikker or Woobly.
- swalsh 5y agoA new Twitter cannot pop up in a month. A site with all of twitters functionality could. But the value is not in the site, it's in the adoption.
- bambax 5y agoYes! ;-))
- Majestic121 5y agoCan you explain how being public pushes Twitter to extremes ?
- fleddr 5y agoA public company needs (endless) growth, it's the only reason to own stock. Growth in social media means attracting more users and/or increasing engagement of existing users. Civil and reasonable discourse is bad for engagement numbers, outrage and extremism do much better.
- tharne 5y ago> Can you explain how being public pushes Twitter to extremes ? Public companies and their leadership face much more pressure to show profit and growth every 3 months. This pushes them toward short-term thinking and easy ways to juice their numbers. For social media the easiest way to do this is the promote and encourage content that incites outrage, since this drives engagement, which in turn drives ad $$$
- n0mn 5y ago> It is the very fact that twitter is a public company to begin with, that is pushing it to extremes. I would argue that the drift toward extremism has much more to do with the advertising revenue business model. Content that enrages, engages. More user engagement = more revenue.
- SuoDuanDao 5y agoyes, but being a public company prevents it from doing anything that deliberately lowers revenues. As a private company they'd be less beholden to advertisers.
- LewisVerstappen 5y agoNo, the reason TWTR is up so significantly is because hedge funds are betting that Elon will try to take twitter private. If he does, there will be a significant share premium paid to current holders from the acquirer.
- lkxijlewlf 5y agoTwitter would die quickly if it goes private.
- toomuchtodo 5y agoHard to imagine they could do worse than becoming beholden to someone other than public shareholders at this point. It’s a utility, not a business.
- s1artibartfast 5y agoWhy would it make a difference?
- personjerry 5y agoWhy would that be? Perhaps you are conflating "privately owned" with "private social network"?
- tayo42 5y agoI'm pretty sure there would be a huge exodus of employees if their rsu disappeared.
- personjerry 5y agoThat's not what happens when a company goes private
- chinathrow 5y agoWhy would he want Twitter private?
- drexlspivey 5y agoTrump’s Truth Social is worth over $10B and it’s basically a mastodon instance
- pjc50 5y ago[citation needed]
- drexlspivey 5y agohttps://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgm5k/truth-social-is-mastodon-trump https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgm5k/truth-social-is-masto... https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/22/22740354/trump-truth-social-network-spac-mastodon-license-software-freedom-conservancy https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/22/22740354/trump-truth-soc...
- dagw 5y agoTrump’s Truth Social is worth over $10B Source? While it was apparently over $20B at the peak of its value, according to https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/DWAC https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/DWAC it seems to currently be bellow $2.5B
- bpicolo 5y agoThey SPACd before launching a product? Jeez.
- colinmhayes 5y agoMatt Levine was having a field day
- missedthecue 5y agothat's most SPACs.
- drexlspivey 5y agoThat’s just the float of the SPAC, the merger didn’t go through yet. The prospectus says that after the merger there will be 193.4 million shares outstanding so multiply 193m with the stock price to get a pro forma market cap of $11+B
- ehnto 5y agoSince we already have a media oligarchy we can't get rid of, maybe it'll help to inject some new blood into it. I don't think Musk has the right answers, but maybe we can hope he won't be copying from Murdoch's homework. Remains to be seen, I suppose.
- modeless 5y agoHe should sell today for 24% profit, then do it again quarterly until it stops popping every time, then take it private.
- no_butterscotch 5y agoThis is what I was going to say. Don't reward Wall Street by taking it private at a fat premium for them.