That’s not how it happened.
If you say so.
Where's my £10k, 250 mile range Tesla then? I don't need shonky gull-wing doors, self-driving (crashing) AI or a 50" touch screen Just a basic working car what runs on the leccy juice, hold the imaginary robots and cybertrucks cheers.
Yep he's universally lauded.
Anyway let's see how he leverages his Twitter shares shall we?
Anyone else reckon those Musky fanbois will have them pumped up to $70 by the weekend?
And Elon will be pushing NFTs to all the suckers on twitter by the end of June?
Perhaps we are seeing the start of the long predicted supremacy of corporations over national governments?
Seems like that already started when the Twitter corporation removed the actual president from communicating via it's platform.
Perhaps Musk is attempting to reverse the trend?
If the bid to buy has been agreed, then there will be a price per share set and it should not go past that. After purchase, he’ll own it as a private company, which means no more shares.
If you own some, you’ll get a fixed price for them (which has been agreed) and then his will become cash. At that point, he doesn’t have to really care what shareholders think or want, he can do what he wants. Theoretically he could open source the whole thing.
Tesla make more affordable ones and start rolling out a huge charger network
Any minute now, no doubt.
If the bid to buy has been agreed, then there will be a price per share set and it should not go past that. After purchase, he’ll own it as a private company, which means no more shares.
I thought he was only buying a controlling share, not a compulsory purchase of the entire company...
Anyway, imagine what you could do with $40B and then thinking; I know, I'll buy Twitter instead.
Where’s my £10k, 250 mile range Tesla then? I don’t need shonky gull-wing doors, self-driving (crashing) AI or a 50″ touch screen Just a basic working car what runs on the leccy juice
First off I'm not a Musk fanboi - I think most of what he says and does is bollocks and he's a garbage human being ...but I think his Tesla strategy has been pretty sound. 10 years ago batteries were the big problem with mass adoption of EVs and although batteries are still one of the main downsides of EVs (cost and range) they've progressed massively and Tesla/Musk has to take a lot of the credit for that. Musk has always stated they need to start with premium models as those have enough margin to fund the technology R&D - if he'd started with a cheap loss-leading model Tesla would be bankrupt by now and it's tech absorbed by larger manufacturers with less incentive to spend so much on EV R&D.
they need to start with premium models
Have you been anywhere near a Tesla? They are quite a bit "not" a premium product.
A Nissan Leaf in the USA costs the customer only $19,000. This is exactly what you were asking for and it’s all because of Tesla and possibly even just Musk.
I imagine it’s at least partly because of Nissan.
Just waiting for the deal to go through.
40b for a website (yeah I know it's more than that)
Could have funded a cure for cancer with that or stopped fossil fuel use in some of the poorest parts of Africa.
So richest guy in the world owns Twitter, 2nd richest owns Washington Post, and Amazon 3rd richest owns FB, 5th and 6th richest started Google, 4th richest started Microsoft, free speech, yeah?
Anyway, imagine what you could do with $40B and then thinking; I know, I’ll buy Twitter instead.
This. Its quite scary isn't it.
It's a bit unfair to drag BillG into this. He's stayed out of a lot of this and has tried at least to do some good stuff (not counting Clippy or Windows ME in that BTW).
But yes, it's a crazy situation. So much power to disseminate information in the hands of a very, very few people. If they could be trusted to be totally benevolent, it would be no problem, but they all have ulterior motives, be it money, or playing god.
Anyway let’s see how he leverages his Twitter shares shall we?
The shares will cease to exist if he's taking it private.
I think he’s a bit of a knob and not anywhere near as amazing as everyone makes out, but you can’t deny he’s done most of the work when it comes to EVs.
Posted 9 hours ago
+1
Without him having driven Tesla all the other manufacturers would still be saying EV cars are just not possible today, wait another 20 years for technology to catch up. He forced their hand by just getting on with it and taking premium market share in the US from the likes of BMW etc. Staggering vision and drive - just a shame he's a total knob.
It’s a bit unfair to drag BillG into this.
In a douche bag contest he could give all of them a run for their money. I know there's been quite a bit of work to clean up his image post Microsoft ownership, but his anti-trust policies back in the day were widely written about, and then There's that time he was deposed and it all went horribly wrong.
Gates was out Musking Elon before he was out of nappies.
Hmmm - an advocate of reducing moderation owning twitter at a time when high profile leaders and nations seem more determined than ever to use untruths as a ploy seems highly concerning.
As someone who does not have a twitter account and has never followed a link through to twitter on another medium (here, bbc news site etc) I could say it'll have little effect of me but obviously that would be bollox. So much news editorial these days seems to be a glorified collation and summary of twitter statements. So many people I walk the streets with (and vote alongside) have their opinions moulded by what they see on twitter. So even my life is significantly moulded by twitter by proxy.
What happened to the poison pill Twitter put in place last week? Was it a complete failure (easy to believe with the current Twitter leadership...), or have they just completely flip flopped to "oh, OK then, since you asked nicely"?
Anyway, imagine what you could do with $40B and then thinking; I know, I’ll buy Twitter instead.
So much opportunity to do good with money. Instead we can can support more cat meme's, Chinese bot's and arguments among folk...
or have they just completely flip flopped to “oh, OK then, since you asked nicely”?
It turned out he was making a viable and serious offer (which given his past record on such matters was reasonable to doubt) and also, most likely, the twitter board got an assessment of how much the company was actually worth and it turned out the offer was a reasonable one.
Ah, makes sense. Suggestion is that the current leadership (tbh the previous leadership too, given that shareholders had to tell Dorsey to stop messing around and either be CEO or not) haven't exactly maximised the company's value, which has rather left it open to a 'reasonable' buyout offer under its shareholder obligations.
Sooo, everyone back to Tumblr then??
The side of the political spectrum that doesn't like free speech or opposing views being aired seems to be monumentally triggered today.
Things were much better when there was just newspapers because the owners of those allowed and promoted a wide range of opinions.
The side of the political spectrum that doesn’t like free speech or opposing views being aired seems to be monumentally triggered today.
Yes the loony right are masturbating furiously over it.
He is a fine example of their idea of a free speech advocate. Wants the right to say what he wants when he wants but has a hissy fit whenever anyone dares say something he doesnt personally like or goes against his business interests.
The side of the political spectrum that doesn’t like free speech or opposing views being aired seems to be monumentally triggered today.
That's a very simplistic take, nut jobs airing extremist views can incite riots / insurrections which end up killing people / over throwing democracies. I would consider that to be something worth worrying about.
The side of the political spectrum that doesn’t like free speech or opposing views being aired seems to be monumentally triggered today.
Yeah they're getting way over excited - they keep forgetting that freedom of speech isn't freedom from consequences.
This is the same Twitter that banned @realDonaldTrump but is fine with the Taliban official account?
This is the same Twitter that banned @realDonaldTrump but is fine with the Taliban official account?
Yes its the same twitter which was fine with the POTUS and Whitehouse official accounts (although with deleting posts which were obviously by him) after the stage where he got banned.
The odd thing about the right wing victimhood complex is he was actually treated as a special case but in the exact opposite way they claim.
Right up until the 6th January he was consistently given exemptions from the rules which applied to everyone else. There were a couple of tests where people copied what he was tweeting and rapidly got themselves banned.
nut jobs airing extremist views can incite riots / insurrections which end up killing people
Like the 30% increase in homicides in the US in 2020? Perhaps someone might try to explain that, with reference to extremist political campaigners using Twitter as a mouthpiece
Gates was out Musking Elon before he was out of nappies.
I don't think any of the current dislike of Bill Gates has got anything to do with anti-trust cases. It seems mostly to do with vaccine conspiracy theories and a belief he is trying to microchip the population and control them with 5g (rather than wipe out malaria).
This is the same Twitter that banned @realDonaldTrump but is fine with the Taliban official account
Yeah, doesn't seem like there's an adequate system for policing bad faith actors in the same way. I prefer not to see Taliban on there, and Twitters explanations fall short of what you'd expect really. Not good.
I can't imagine Musk owning it, will make that better though.
This is the same Twitter that banned @realDonaldTrump but is fine with the Taliban official account?
It’s the same twitter that grants a great deal of leeway to world leaders and important political groups not afforded to regular citizens.
I don’t think any of the current dislike of Bill Gates has got anything to do with anti-trust cases
You've misunderstood I think. Gates is a prickly know-it-all used to getting his own way, and doesn't like to be challenged. He has a weird understanding how "charity" works, (see patent filing) and is as keen to make as much money as he's always been. For some reason that I don't quite understand, lots of folks that should know better seem to think he's some cuddly old dude.
What conspiracy theory nut-jobs think of him is pretty irrelevant to that really.
ah OK, well you've lost me. Your other post just referred to the anti-trust stuff and I don't know about the other stuff you're now referring to with patents.
The side of the political spectrum that doesn’t like free speech or opposing views being aired seems to be monumentally triggered today.
Freedom of speech is such a powerful term. Freedom of speech is not a free ticket to tell lies or to abuse. That becomes even more prescient when the lie tellers are world leaders or influential figures and the act of broadcasting the lies as capably as something like twitter does distorts the commonly held understanding of the truth. The last US election is a textbook example of that and globally we are still suffering the consequences. See also the Ukrainian war and how Putin has been able to twist the truth to the extent that swathes of the Russian population hold such odd views on the topic.
As obtuse as it might seem, I believe platform moderation can be the tool required to allow freedom of speech.
This is the same Twitter that banned @realDonaldTrump but is fine with the Taliban official account
It might be uncomfortable for western ears but the Taliban having a fundamentally different ideology to us is something we might have to hear. In fact, need to hear. The murky waters of if or when a faith is lying because their belief structure is based on (to my mind at least) fairy tails and the teaching of non existent gods - that's a tough one.
"Freedom of speech is not a free ticket to tell lies or to abuse"
I guess you must be referring to the fact that Twitter is often used as a platform for extremists to attack and abuse people they disagree with, such as JK Rowling.
I think perhaps this is why there is a sharp political divide in the reaction to the news of musk buying Twitter. The pile-ons and cancelling has all been one-way.
I guess you must be referring to the fact that Twitter is often used as a platform for extremists to attack and abuse people they disagree with, such as JK Rowling.
Yep - that too. Abuse of someone like JKR for her views should not be allowed. STRONG disagreement with her absolutely should be however. But neither party should be allowed to use factually incorrect information to back up their case or wish harm on the other. That's no hard to fathom is it? I can't see how a moderation reduction from the current (far from ideal already) situation is going to help allow debate and freedom of speech to improve.
neither party should be allowed to use factually incorrect information
Who defined "facts" though? Whoever is in charge of the platform.
Whoever is in charge of the platform.
Everyone: “but just think of all the things you could achieve for humanity with $40b
Musk: nah, I just want to be able to call people paedophile when I feel like it
like that you mean?
but just think of all the things you could achieve for humanity with $40b
Build a working Track and Trace system?
I think perhaps this is why there is a sharp political divide in the reaction to the news of musk buying Twitter. The pile-ons and cancelling has all been one-way
Aside from the right have launched plenty of pile-ons and cancellations just not overly successfully in the main.
Just look at how many times Trump tried to get people cancelled.
Once again Trump was given special privilege after special privilege on twitter right up until the point he seemed to be encouraging violence and insurrection.
Claiming he was treated unfairly is absolutely nuts.
but just think of all the things you could achieve for humanity with $40b
Which is great, Elon has just given (or more correctly, is about to give) the Twitter shareholders $40b. The Twitter shareholders can now go out and see what they can achieve for humanity with $40b...
Edit: I feel very uncomfortable about such an important platform being controlled by one individual, but that's a slightly separate issue to the $40b.
Is it going to morph into 4chan?
Which is great, Elon has just given (or more correctly, is about to give) the Twitter shareholders $40b.
Maybe, maybe not.
There is considerable overlap between the shareholders in both and for those with more Tesla shares then twitter its possible the drop in Teslas price if sustained would cancel out the profit.
Twitter is a horrid cesspit of toxicity, populated by attention seekers and terminal arguers.
Seems a good fit to me.