A new series of text messages between Elon Musk and Twitter executives, close friends, potential investors and Silicon Valley brethren shed light on how the world’s richest person buys the social media company. association worth $44 billion (nearly rs 3,58,100). came – and ended up in court.
The documents show who wants to be part of the acquisition and reveal insiders’ thoughts on who would run the company if Musk came to own it. They were revealed as part of TwitterMusk’s lawsuit to get Musk to comply with a stock split offer worth $54.20 (nearly Rs 4,400), is expected to go to trial in Delaware Chancery Court next month.
Among many texts, Musk revealed that he “had a minor case of COVID” in late March, usually “until ~3am” and no longer had a personal assistant.
Here are 10 glimpses behind the scenes.
first. Jack DorseyTwitter’s former CEO worked to invite Musk to join the board shortly after activist investors began agitating for change in the company in 2020.
“I tried my best to get you on our board, and the board said no,” Dorsey wrote. “It was around that time that I decided that I needed to work to leave, just as hard as it was for me.”
Dorsey is the “jack jack” on Elon’s phone.
2. Musk’s relationship with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal went from friendly to frosty within a week. On April 5, Agrawal tweeted that Musk was being appointed to Twitter’s board – and approved of Musk’s language on the tweet.
But by April 9, the tone had changed dramatically. Agrawal encouraged Musk for his tweets disparaging the company.
“You’re welcome to tweet ‘Twitter is dying’ or whatever else Twitter is – but it’s my responsibility to tell you that it doesn’t help me improve Twitter in the current context. I would like to provide your views on how much internal distraction is right now and how it is [sic] harm our ability to work”.
“What did you do this week?” Musk reacted.
“I am not on the board of directors. What a waste of time,” he texted 40 seconds later.
“Will make an offer to make Twitter private,” he texted 15 seconds later.
3. Minutes later, Musk texted Chairman Bret Taylor about fixing Twitter. The texts show that he was aware of ‘s Twitter robot issue, which he will then cite as a reason to abandon the agreement.
“This is very difficult to do as a public company, because purging fake users would make the numbers terrible, so the restructuring should be done with the mindset of the people,” Musk wrote. way is a private company. “This is also Jack’s opinion.”
4. On April 20, Musk texted Oracleby Larry Ellison.
“Do you want to join the Twitter deal?” he asks. Ellison said yes. Musk asked how much.
“A billion…or whatever you suggest,” Ellison replied. Musk proposed $2 billion (nearly Rs 16,300). On April 24, Ellison said, “Because you think I should go in with at least $2 billion. I joined for 2 billion dollars. “
5. Some of Musk’s friends had ideas about who Musk should hire. Investor Bill Lee recommends Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital. Jason Calacanis noted that “Twitter CEO is my dream job.”
6. Joe Rogan is a fan of this deal. “I really hope you get Twitter,” the oversized podcaster texted. “If you do, we should throw a party in hell.”
7. Steve Jurvetson suggested Musk hire Emil Michael, the former business executive of Uber Technologiesand text Michael’s LinkedIn account out.
Musk replied, “I don’t have a LinkedIn account.
CBS’ Gayle King asked Musk in April for an interview, saying buying Twitter was what the kids called a “gangsta move” and hinting that Oprah Winfrey might want to join the board. King says she wants an edit button on Twitter.
“Twitter edit button coming soon,” Musk replied.
9. Musk warns Calacanis not to invest in deal with “randos”.
It “makes me look desperate,” he said.
Calacanis said he just wanted to be supportive: “You know I’m riding or dying brother.”
10. In March, Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency billionaire, attempted to contact Musk through an associate to discuss entering into a deal for Twitter. Musk showed no interest – and oblivious to Bankman-Fried’s wealth, he asked: “Does he have huge amounts of money?”
He ended up liking the idea, “as long as I don’t have to argue about the blockchain that is laborious.”
It is not clear whether they met or not.
© 2022 Bloomberg LP
