Elon Musk Completes $44 Billion Deal to Own Twitter – The New York Times

By Kate Conger and Lauren Hirsch

Kate Conger reports on technology from San Francisco and Lauren Hirsch reports on mergers and acquisitions from New York.

• Published Oct. 27, 2022Updated Oct. 28, 2022, 11:45 a.m. ET

“After months of waffling, lawsuits, verbal mudslinging and the near miss of a full blown trial, Elon Musk now owns Twitter.

On Thursday night, Mr. Musk closed his $44 billion deal to buy the social media service, said three people with knowledge of the situation. He also began cleaning house, with at least four top Twitter executives — including the chief executive and chief financial officer — getting fired on Thursday. Mr. Musk had arrived at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Wednesday and met with engineers and ad executives.

The closing of the deal, which followed months of drama and legal challenges as Mr. Musk changed his mind about buying the company, sets Twitter on an uncertain course. Mr. Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has said that he wants to make the social media platform a more freewheeling place for all types of commentary and that he would “reverse the permanent ban” of former President Donald J. Trump from the service.”

David Lindsay:

David Lindsay Jr.

Hamden, CT8h ago

@David Baldwin Yes, I agree. (Bad news for the democracy)  If Twitter under Musk lets fascists and the progagators of massive lies and conspiracy theories back on twitter, such as Trump, it will not be good for the US or the world. In protest, my partner and I will have to give up our plan to buy a new Tesla in the next two years. Luckily, the competition is starting to put out their own models. It is sad, since Tesla right now is a marvel of the world, and great win for America.

David blogs at InconvenientNews.net

 

Farhad Manjoo | With Elon Musk, the Drama Is the Point – The New York Times

By Farhad Manjoo

Opinion Columnist

“Previously on “Elon,” our man rushed into a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter just before the bottom fell out of tech stocks, including his own. Not the best timing, but fret not, for Elon’s always got an out.

This time it’s bots. Eradicating the scammy, automated accounts that plague Twitter had been one of his ideas for turning the company around: “Defeat the spam bots or die trying!” he’d vowed.

Well, new war plan: Retreat! Twitter says bots make up less than 5 percent of its user base, but what if there are lots more bots than we thought? Couldn’t, say, 20 percent of Twitter’s users be bots? And maybe it’s even more! What if Twitter has been underreporting its bot count in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission? Hence Elon’s new plot: Unless Twitter can prove who’s bot and who’s not, the deal’s shot.”

David Lindsay Jr.

Hamden, CT | NYT Comment:

Maybe Musk will continue to do well, My partner and I set aside money for an S3 Tesla, and then Musk announced he planned to reopen Twitter to Trump and his ilk. We decided not to buy a Tesla after all. Luckily, there will be more choices by next year.

Elon Musk Would Reverse Twitter’s Ban on Trump – The New York Times

By Mike Isaac

• May 10, 2022

“Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he would “reverse the permanent ban” of former President Donald J. Trump on Twitter and let him back on the social network, in one of the first specific comments by Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, of how he would change the social media service.

Mr. Musk, who struck a deal last month to buy Twitter for $44 billion, said at a Financial Times conference that the company’s decision to bar Mr. Trump last year for tweets about the riots at the U.S. Capitol was “a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.” He added that it was “morally wrong and flat-out stupid” and that “permanent bans just fundamentally undermine trust in Twitter.” “

David Lindsay Jr.

Hamden, CT | NYT comment:

Elon Musk does not understand the damage that unregulated social media has on democracy, through the promotion of fake news and fake facts and conspiracy theories. My partner and I have been saving our money to buy a Tesla, probably in the next year or two. If Musk undoes the small progress that Twitter has made to be socially and politically responsible, including the banning of Trump, we will not be buying that Tesla, but one of its competitors, which are now coming out every month. We owe a great debt to Elon Musk for creating or accelerating the electric car market, but that does not mean we can look past his repulsive insensitivity to the threats, including Donald Trump, that endanger democracies here and abroad.

David writes about the climate crises here in comments, and at his blog, InconvenientNews.net

Anand Giridharadas | Elon Musk Is a Problem Masquerading as a Solution – The New York Times

By Anand Giridharadas

Anand Giridharadas is the author, most recently, of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.”

“It is a perfect marriage for an age of plutocracy: Twitter with its serious problems and Elon Musk, the embodiment of those problems. What happens when the incarnation of a problem buys the right to decide what the problem is and how to fix it?

Twitter has a disinformation problem — fake news about Covid vaccines, climate and more running buck wild across the platform. Mr. Musk has shown himself to be a highly capable peddler of dubious claims, whether putting out misleading financial information or calling the British diver who helped rescue trapped schoolboys in Thailand a “pedo guy.” “

Inside Tesla: How Elon Musk Pushed His Vision for Autopilot – The New York Times

By Cade Metz and Neal E. Boudette

• Dec. 6, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET

“Elon Musk built his electric car company, Tesla, around the promise that it represented the future of driving — a phrase emblazoned on the automaker’s website.

Much of that promise was centered on Autopilot, a system of features that could steer, brake and accelerate the company’s sleek electric vehicles on highways. Over and over, Mr. Musk declared that truly autonomous driving was nearly at hand — the day when a Tesla could drive itself — and that the capability would be whisked to drivers over the air in software updates.

Unlike technologists at almost every other company working on self-driving vehicles, Mr. Musk insisted that autonomy could be achieved solely with cameras tracking their surroundings. But many Tesla engineers questioned whether it was safe enough to rely on cameras without the benefit of other sensing devices — and whether Mr. Musk was promising drivers too much about Autopilot’s capabilities.”

Take away, don’t by a Tesla for it’s self driving technology.