Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, including the latest on Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter
- Dorsey: Musk Is the ‘Singular Solution I Trust’ for Twitter
- Parag Agrawal: We don’t know what direction Twitter will go
- Elon Musk, world’s richest man, reaches deal to buy Twitter for $44bn
- Jokes, cheers and dire warnings: Twitter reacts to Musk’s takeover
- More than a quarter of Netflix’s UK subscribers share passwords
Freetrade senior analyst Dan Lane has warned that Musk’s takeover of Twitter could be ‘a disaster waiting to happen’, which could distract him from running Tesla.
At what feels like an inflection point, with the war in Ukraine bringing into sharp view the need to push further into renewables, Musk could be about to instead leap into the biggest vanity project the world has ever seen.
Away from grand ideas about promoting free speech, what Musk actually sees is a special situation here, in much the same way as any other value-minded investor. But it will take time, resources and a learning curve before he can enact any serious plans he has in mind and, crucially, unlock any hidden value.
There are big questions ahead about what Musk’s leadership will mean for the company. There is the possibility that its headquarters could be moved to Austin, headcount could face cuts and there is likely to be a ideological shift in terms of the company’s focus away from content moderation and towards free speech instead. However despite speculation, Fox News is reporting that Donald Trump will not be returning to Twitter as he is using his own Truth Social platform instead.
Overall stakeholders will be hoping that Musk can inject some of his Tesla-style magic to improve usability as well as monetisation, two things that Twitter has struggled with for a long time and more than most of its rivals.
Musk is flaunting his power. Musk is flaunting his influence. Musk’s deal Tweet is that “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated”.
But this Tweet could also face an argument that Twitter is not a digital town square but more like a small digital village with Musk as the town crier who is making public proclamations just like the original town criers – shouting in the streets to those that hear it, but the majority are outside of the village where most can’t hear, and find many other villages, towns and cities that offer other debates.
