Monday, April 18, 2022

Elon Musk's Attempt To Take Over Twitter

It was only a few weeks ago when, at a public event, Jack Dorsey asked Elon Musk, "How would you fix Twitter?"



Ends up it was a few years ago. But I might have first seen that video only a few weeks ago. Time travels.

Little did Jack know. Elon has ideas.

I am neutral on the idea of who should own which company. Elon's bid is a drama that many are watching. So am I.

But I am on record stating at this very blog over 10 years ago that Twitter needs to live its potential. Just do a search on Twitter in the search box in the top right corner. Thank you, Google.

Elon wants to "unlock Twitter's potential." That idea I like. Elon wants to make it the free speech vehicle around the world. That idea I like even more. I guess Twitter is in the habit of taking down tweets to play nice with governments around the world. That is not nice. People should not use Twitter to commit crimes, like inciting violence. Trump getting booted out is not a violation of free speech.

Even if Elon manages to take Twitter private -- some people think he is not even trying to do that -- but if he manages, and liberates the platform, eventually Twitter does go public again.



A lot of people in the tech space are feeling very passionate about the move.



In Defense of Elon Musk's Managerial Excellence The Tesla CEO’s track record proves he’s a pre-eminent builder of businesses and maximizer of shareholder value. ....... the chief executive officer of the world's most valuable automaker has no equal. ...... Among the 10 largest publicly-traded companies, Musk’s Tesla Inc. is No. 1 in growth the past decade with revenue increasing more than 260-fold to $53.8 billion; No. 1 the past 12 months with sales surging 71%; No. 1 in share performance over five and 10 years with its stock appreciating 15- and 146-fold, respectively, to a recent $1,000; and No. 1 in employment by more than quintupling its workforce since 2016 ...... Among the six companies with at least a $1 trillion market capitalization, none achieved the milestone as quickly – and stayed there – as Tesla, which did it 11 years after its initial public offering. It took Apple Inc. 38 years, Microsoft Inc. 33 years, Google parent Alphabet Inc. 16 years, and Amazon.com Inc. 23 years. Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. reached $1 trillion nine years after its IPO but has since dropped back to $600 billion ...... Tesla almost four times as valuable as the second-largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corp., and worth about 57% of the 10 biggest combined. ......

Tesla accounts for 41% of the total value of the 184 publicly traded vehicle manufacturers worldwide.

....... Tesla, unlike its peers, persevered through the dislocations caused first by the pandemic and then war in Ukraine by spending years focused on shoring up its supply chain. That’s a big reason why Tesla was able to report record first-quarter deliveries earlier this month despite what it called “an exceptionally difficult” period ........ “Tesla's vertical integration strategy has been critical,” Cathie Wood, founder, CEO and chief investment officer of Ark Investment Management LLC, said in an interview earlier this month. Unlike its competitors, “Tesla is in control of its cars” and “can tweak and change” in contrast to rest of the auto industry whose “specs are put to bed, you know, three to four years or five years prior. And they're not going to change.” ......... the company’s battery technology “is about three years ahead of any other auto manufacturer.” ........ Wood raised her target for Tesla last week to $4,600 a share in 2026. ...... Tesla's “more than a million and a half cars on the road are effectively data collectors for Elon Musk,” she said. “No other auto manufacturer has cars equipped to send back this real-world driving data. In order to compete with Tesla, at let's say a like-for-like price, they'll either have to skimp on range or performance and rely on their brand, otherwise they'll just lose money if they want to keep up with Tesla at the same price.” ........ Tesla's 2021 revenue of $53.8 billion accounts for 20% of the entire EV market and 80% of the world's six EV-only automakers ...... In addition to its incomparable real-world driving data and battery technology, Tesla has an artificial intelligence chip “that no one else has” ........ “Elon describes Tesla as a manufacturer of factories,” with plants in Freemont, California, Austin, Shanghai and Berlin. “With each factory, Tesla becomes more efficient and more productive” ....... “It is from the bottom up, constructing these highly automated factories, more automated than anyone else's in the world.” .



The Future Of Work





The Masses, Not Mars
The Masses, Not Mars?
Go Putin Go

This is what I would like to suggest as a roadmap, should the takeover happen, and Twitter becomes Boring.



  • Buy a browser. Something next generation. Build or outsource the Pi tablet/laptop.
  • Allow Google to index the entire Twitter. Make them pay for it. Let them be the default search engine on the browser. Make them pay.
  • Let Twitter be the landing page in the browser.
  • Marry Starlink to the whole idea. People get internet access for free on this device. The browser has a paybar, or a pay corner where ads are served. That pays for it all. Location and browsing history determine what ads get served.
  • Redo Twitter. 99% just want to consume. They don't even want to open an account. Let them consume.
  • Of the 1% who bother to sign up, most content is created by the 1% of that 1%.
  • So Twitter should have three modes. (1) Browsing mode. No sign up necessary. You don't see any symbols. Just natural language. (2) Sign up mode. (3) Content creation mode.
  • I am for free speech. No tolerating any curbs anywhere.
  • I am curious about open sourcing the algorithms. Perhaps the Open API madness can make a comeback.
Go Putin Go



With Elon, Twitter might be in good hands.



This Is Not the Year of the Optimist The news has been so depressing lately. A crazy guy opens fire in a subway in Brooklyn. The Russians are committing atrocities in Ukraine and are about to start a major offensive in the east. And my tuna melt on rye costs $21 at a not-much-to-look-at New York City diner, not including the tip. ...... The Mets are off to a strong start but give them a few months and they’ll be depressing you as well. ...... winter’s over, job openings are way up in the past year, and the subway shooting was miraculously — miraculously! — without fatalities. ....... “Crazy Guy Aims, Shoots, Misses” could also be a contender for the next Russian national anthem. ........ Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter at $54.20 a share........ Half the punditocracy seems to think this would be great; the other half thinks it’s the apocalypse....... the 4.20 in $54.20 is an inside joke about getting high. ....... Even if Twitter tanked, wouldn’t there be some new post-Twitter communications system coming around the bend soon? ........ the idea that Twitter is a good forum for speech is silly. Trying to communicate a thought in 240 characters isn’t speaking. It’s blurting. You don’t use Twitter for persuasion. You use it for insults and virtue signaling. A healthy free-speech environment depends on people talking with each other. Twitter is a medium for people to talk at others. The best thing that could happen to Twitter isn’t an acquisition, by Musk or anyone else. It’s bankruptcy. ....... And what’s the chance the Republican Party is going to become the Home for Unwillingly Retired Entertainers? ....... It’s ironic that the Democrats’ huge flaw is an inability to get anything serious passed in Congress — because of the, um, lack of Democrats in the Senate. Which will probably cost them several more Senate seats.



Elon Musk has built a track record over the past 20 years that is outstanding. He is the "king of kings" among tech entrepreneurs. And he is not that old. He could still run hard for 20 years if he chooses to, before he transports himself to Mars. (Some people think that is where he came from in the first place! When he first landed, his name was Elon Mars.) Twitter would be in good hands. I think Elon Musk could turn Twitter into a trillion-dollar company in less than 10 years.



(A cotton candy for everyone who figures out this whole blog post is just an ad for Go Putin Go.)
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