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Elon's main financier for his Twitter bid are from a Saudi prince: https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1577380706585542657?s=20 https://twitter.com/oneun

Elon's main financier for his Twitter bid are from a Saudi prince: https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1577380706585542657?s=20 https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/15773807065855426... This doesn't bode will for Twitter spying which has already involved the Saudi government. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/09/twitter-saudi-arabia-dissident-spying https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/09/twitter-saud...

nathanvanfleet 4y ago
Elon is already notorious for hiring private investigators against his detractors. I kind of wonder if there were anonymous Elon detractors who were not looking forward to the acquisition
- joering2 4y ago
  In my opinion you cannot make money off of Twitter, no matter what business model you implement. I also don't think Musk would spent that much money just to lower his tax burden when selling Tesla stock. Its quite possible he will make the cost of his purchase back by working with foreign governments. I can imagine for countries like Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan... the information that twitter harvest back stage regarding their citizens (the "rouge" ones) is most likely priceless.
  - joshspankit 4y ago
    At it’s core, Twitter is a very simple technology with minimal cost per user. If it were truly pared down to the essentials he could have zero business model and add it’s costs as a line item on a different balance sheet. However, he’s talked about making it a Wechat which means an opportunity to collect fees for transactions made through the platform. With minimal costs, no advertising, and a decent flow of transaction fees? That could be a business with healthy enough profit.
- PM_me_your_math 4y ago
  "Elon is already notorious for hiring private investigators against his detractors." So like the Democratic National Convention? Everyone does it if they can afford it.
  - myko 4y ago
    It would be stupid for politicians not to investigate their opponents, for example the Republicans when they hired Steele to investigate trump. Investigating trump turned up multiple crimes and led to several convictions, there was plenty there and in an ideal world it would have kept him out of office. Elon investigating folks who are trying to rescue kids because he's mad he got called out for a performative attempt at helping the same kids is much more shallow. Not reasonable in my opinion for him to behave that way. I'm unaware of others like him that do similar things.
- bigmattystyles 4y ago
  Is there anything stopping Musk or any other employees for that matter from just looking at drafts, DMs, etc… At the time of the takeover, were there processes in place to make sure any one employee could not just access DMs with ease? Hopefully there were, but no doubt Musk could bypass them easily now that Twitter is ‘his’. If there’s to be any trust in DMs, they need end to end encryption, short of that, an independent board to grant access, like his planned content moderation board. I’m not holding my breath…
costcofries 4y ago
This is a bit misleading.He was a large stakeholder in Twitter before Musk announced his acquisition. Instead of being bought out of his shares like other shareholders at the $54.20, he opted to keep his shares and reduce the total cost Musk owed.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- kibwen 4y ago
  Yes, but this is also somewhat misleading. He used to be a shareholder, but now he is a creditor. His relationship to the company is not the same as it was.
  - collegeburner 4y ago
    uhh what? looks like he's just keeping his stake in the go private. rolling equity doesn't make him a creditor it just means now he has a stake in the private venture. where'd you get this info?
- wavefunction 4y ago
  Now the Saudis are the second largest stockholder in Twitter after Elon. And I commend you for pointing out the charity of this Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, I am sure he and Saudi Arabia have no expectations for graciously forgoing their millions in profits while offering this charity to "The World's Richest Man".
collegeburner 4y ago
rolling equity is not "subsidizing", as your link put it. the saudis have just under 17% so not a controlling interest.
- res0nat0r 4y ago
  https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1587091081920929796 https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1587091081920929796 https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1587091085288947712?s=20 https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1587091085288947712... Chris Murphy at least thinks it is an issue, as do I.

nathanvanfleet 4y ago

Elon is already notorious for hiring private investigators against his detractors. I kind of wonder if there were anonymous Elon detractors who were not looking forward to the acquisition

joering2 4y ago
In my opinion you cannot make money off of Twitter, no matter what business model you implement. I also don't think Musk would spent that much money just to lower his tax burden when selling Tesla stock. Its quite possible he will make the cost of his purchase back by working with foreign governments. I can imagine for countries like Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan... the information that twitter harvest back stage regarding their citizens (the "rouge" ones) is most likely priceless.
- joshspankit 4y ago
  At it’s core, Twitter is a very simple technology with minimal cost per user. If it were truly pared down to the essentials he could have zero business model and add it’s costs as a line item on a different balance sheet. However, he’s talked about making it a Wechat which means an opportunity to collect fees for transactions made through the platform. With minimal costs, no advertising, and a decent flow of transaction fees? That could be a business with healthy enough profit.
PM_me_your_math 4y ago
"Elon is already notorious for hiring private investigators against his detractors." So like the Democratic National Convention? Everyone does it if they can afford it.
- myko 4y ago
  It would be stupid for politicians not to investigate their opponents, for example the Republicans when they hired Steele to investigate trump. Investigating trump turned up multiple crimes and led to several convictions, there was plenty there and in an ideal world it would have kept him out of office. Elon investigating folks who are trying to rescue kids because he's mad he got called out for a performative attempt at helping the same kids is much more shallow. Not reasonable in my opinion for him to behave that way. I'm unaware of others like him that do similar things.
bigmattystyles 4y ago
Is there anything stopping Musk or any other employees for that matter from just looking at drafts, DMs, etc… At the time of the takeover, were there processes in place to make sure any one employee could not just access DMs with ease? Hopefully there were, but no doubt Musk could bypass them easily now that Twitter is ‘his’. If there’s to be any trust in DMs, they need end to end encryption, short of that, an independent board to grant access, like his planned content moderation board. I’m not holding my breath…

costcofries 4y ago

This is a bit misleading.He was a large stakeholder in Twitter before Musk announced his acquisition. Instead of being bought out of his shares like other shareholders at the $54.20, he opted to keep his shares and reduce the total cost Musk owed.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
kibwen 4y ago
Yes, but this is also somewhat misleading. He used to be a shareholder, but now he is a creditor. His relationship to the company is not the same as it was.
- collegeburner 4y ago
  uhh what? looks like he's just keeping his stake in the go private. rolling equity doesn't make him a creditor it just means now he has a stake in the private venture. where'd you get this info?
wavefunction 4y ago
Now the Saudis are the second largest stockholder in Twitter after Elon. And I commend you for pointing out the charity of this Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, I am sure he and Saudi Arabia have no expectations for graciously forgoing their millions in profits while offering this charity to "The World's Richest Man".

collegeburner 4y ago

rolling equity is not "subsidizing", as your link put it. the saudis have just under 17% so not a controlling interest.

res0nat0r 4y ago
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1587091081920929796 https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1587091081920929796 https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1587091085288947712?s=20 https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1587091085288947712... Chris Murphy at least thinks it is an issue, as do I.