![]() ![]() What does Musk think Twitter is for? All we have to go on is a series of cryptic tweets and statements that are short enough to allow for wide interpretation. More recently, Dorsey oversaw efforts to both make the company a platform for “healthy conversation” and to turn it into a decentralized protocol. There was the era after Jack Dorsey returned to CEO and tried to focus the product’s attention on “what’s happening.” There was the effort led by former chief operating office Anthony Noto to make Twitter a destination for live video. “It’s a question that has vexed users since the creation of the service.” “What is Twitter for? Everybody who’s ever been in control of Twitter has had a different answer to that question,” one former executive told me today. The $44 billion question, though, is … transform it into what? As a private company, beholden only to the interests of one man, Twitter may be able to transform itself in ways that it never could while it had to report quarterly earnings. Twitter has long been an underperformer, and former executives I spoke with today were relieved that the company now had a real chance to make radical change. ![]() Ultimately, the 38 percent premium that Musk offered over its current stock price struck members as the best deal they could likely get. He did so, and the board considered its options. That forced Musk to prove that he actually had the financing to get the deal done. As a negotiating tactic, the board put in place a “poison pill” to prevent Musk from acquiring any more of the company. On the other, as Matt Levine noted today, once Musk made his offer, the whole thing proceeded fairly normally. Acquiring 9 percent of the company as a “passive” investor, failing to report it on time, getting invited to join the board, turning it down, then offering to buy the company outright - that’s an extremely strange turn of events. On one hand, Musk’s acquisition really is an extraordinary story. On the plus side, the company’s earnings report Thursday no longer has the potential to further tank its stock.īeyond that, as with everything related to the Twitter-Musk story over the past month, it’s extremely difficult to predict. There seems to be at least some likelihood that the company will see significant attrition, particularly in the leadership ranks - and on the “health” teams that work to fight harassment and abuse. (There is, however, a partial freeze on new features, although I’m told that’s fairly standard during moments when there is a lot of attention on Twitter and the company doesn’t want to introduce any new bugs.) Agrawal did say there would not be layoffs in the near term, though he would not comment on whether there would be a hiring freeze. At that time, it seems likely that CEO Parag Agrawal will leave the company, although he did not say so when addressing employees today. The deal is expected to take around six months to close. As a result, one person told me, “group chats are scrambling to see if working at Twitter makes economic sense first and foremost.” At an all-hands meeting on Monday afternoon, they were told that employees will not receive equity once the company goes private. They like the fact that he wants to eliminate harmful bots and bring more clarity to how recommendation algorithms work.Īt the same time, many Twitter employees receive half or more of their compensation in stock. Some employees I’ve spoken with are open to the idea that a private Twitter run by Musk stands a better chance of improving the service than would a public company beholden to its shareholders. “Big bummer.”īut in one-on-one discussions, responses were more tempered. “I was kind of surprised how much people seemed like they were giving up,” one told me. What began three weeks ago as a “passive investment” will end with Musk in charge.Īfter the announcement, sentiment in the public Slack channels remained largely concerned and negative, employees told me. ![]() Then, just before the markets closed, the news arrived: the board had accepted Musk’s offer to take the company private for $44 billion, or $54.20 a share. One thread, in which an employee asked good-naturedly whether anyone was excited about the prospect of working for Musk, drew dozens of responses, many of them quite ugly. Like a classroom where the teacher is late and students are attempting to self-govern, one said. Work all but came to a halt, employees told me. It had been days since Twitter leadership had shared anything with them, and after a weekend’s worth of reports that a sale was imminent, employees were looking for answers.įor the first few hours of the morning, none came. In the moments before Elon Musk bought Twitter, the company Slack channels were lit up with nervous anticipation. ![]()
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