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Elon Musk takes over Twitter

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Alma, Apr 25, 2022.

Page 5 of 275
  1. Hermes

    Hermes Well-Known Member

    I wouldn’t have batted an eye in March 2009 if you told me Donald Trump was joining Twitter.

    These platforms transform our lives in ways we never expect. I and you and everybody else has no idea what Twitter in the hands of an oligarch might grow or allow to fester. Might be no big deal. Might be the first chapter of some truly Orwellian shit.
     
    Hermes, Apr 26, 2022
    #49
    SFIND and OscarMadison like this.
  2. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I can't predict what kind of liquidity-driven craziness continues, but things to keep in mind:

    1) The "fundamental" value of Twitter being divorced from it's real value may only matter if it is a public company that is bubbled up due to interest rate manipulation creating a lot of malinvestment. He is taking the company private, which means that that broad liquidity that has driven equity prices artificially higher doesn't matter the same way. Now, he could turn around at some point and bring the company public again, and it would be just like him -- probably with Morgan Stanley doing the underwriting and getting rewarded with the investment banking fees -- but as of the closing of this deal, it's a private company whose value doesn't matter to anyone except him.
    2) Which leverages it entirely to the value of Tesla, which is trading at an absurd 200+ p/e ratio. Because he is financing billions of dollars worth of this acquisition with a margin loan with a lot of Tesla stock as the collateral. So yeah, you are correct that his charlatan act has benefited from all of the subsidization he has gotten and from Fed-induced malinvestment that has Tesla trading at the kind of multiple we have only ever seen during bubble periods. But it does come entirely down to Tesla STAYING at that valuation, because he is leveraged to the hilt now. Any hiccup, and he's fucked.
     
    The Big Ragu, Apr 26, 2022
    #50
    jlee likes this.
  3. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Worth asking this question: is there a Gresham's Law for speech?

    Does bad speech drive out good ?

    Because we sort of assume the opposite: Counterspeech Doctrine

    But I'm no longer certain of this.
     
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2022
    Azrael, Apr 26, 2022
    #51
  4. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member



     
    Neutral Corner, Apr 26, 2022
    #52
  5. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    thread

     
    Azrael, Apr 26, 2022
    #53
  6. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    This assumes Musk wants to run the company as a viable business interest and not as a vanity hobby through which he can grab headlines to feed his voracious ego daily, dole out favors to friends, spite enemies in the investment, journalism and regulatory ranks - and ban the kid who tracks his private jet’s whereabouts and look at all the amateur porn being sent through DMs.
     
    TigerVols, Apr 26, 2022
    #54
    sgreenwell likes this.
  7. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Telling that we only find threads like this about Twitter . . . on Twitter.

     
    Azrael, Apr 26, 2022
    #55
    OscarMadison likes this.
  8. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    As Ragu pointed out, even Musk cannot really afford to run a $44 billion investment as a vanity hobby. That's what NFL franchises are for. At that price, he HAS to do what it takes to keep Twitter above water financially, even if he'd rather not. Remember, as the ad industry saying has it, in social media, the users are the product. It's a tough business when your product can pull up stakes and go somewhere else. There's an innate pull towards doing whatever attracted them in the first place.
     
    Michael_ Gee, Apr 26, 2022
    #56
  9. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    I wouldn't mind an all-blue check Twitter.
     
    DanOregon, Apr 26, 2022
    #57
  10. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    What you and Ragu are ignoring is that Musk will never run out of money because there has always been and will always be people willing to give him gobs of it whenever he asks.
     
    TigerVols, Apr 26, 2022
    #58
  11. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    The government was more than willing to give Musk gobs of money directly and/or indirectly for Space X and Tesla. For Twitter, no. Morgan Stanley (full disclosure, my money management firm) gives people money only when it expects to get more back. They can be kind of pushy about it, too.
     
    Michael_ Gee, Apr 26, 2022
    #59
  12. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    So there are only two sources of money for the richest man on the planet?
     
    TigerVols, Apr 26, 2022
    #60
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