Twitter buyout: Larry Ellison bursts into Elon's office, slaps $1b down on the desk Elon Musk has bagged $7.14 billion in funding from Oracle billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison, cryptocurrency exchange Binance, and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, as well as top VC firm Sequioa and others, in his quest to acquire Twitter. The world's richest man may be worth around $250 billion on paper, but he still needs a …
of the Musk kind...
"Last week Mr Musk accused Mr Gates of "shorting" Tesla stock - a way of making money by betting that a company will lose value. Mr Musk has also tweeted puerile insults towards Mr Gates on Twitter.
"There's no need for him to be nice to me," Mr Gates says.
By your definition a dickhead is someone who succeeded in:
1. Creating a very innovative payment processor.
2. Creating the most successful rocket launching organisation since the 1960s / 70s
3. Creating the most successful electric car company.
4. Creating the most successful satellite based ISP.
5. Saving a social media network from authoritarian censorship.
6. Amassing a net worth of more than a quarter of a TRILLION dollars through aforementioned efforts.
You should consider taking a third opinion on your critical thinking and reasoning skills…
And also a con man. this whole thing seems to be another way ro sell more Tesla shares while it is still over valued by about 100x without causing it to tank too much.
First he held a Twitter poll to sell shares to distract from the real reason he wanted to sell. Now he sells shares to buy twitter, But then digs up more investors after the fact so that he can hang on to his money and let others waste theirs.
>Musk is never going to terraform Mars.
You are likely correct, terraforming Mars would take a minimum of centuries.
> Look at what we as a species are doing to this planet: the very opposite of terraforming.
Yes and no. Terraforming Earth means "changing Earth to resemble the Earth", so let's not take it literally. If were slightly looser in our definition and take Terraforming to mean "changing a planet to resemble an Earth that is suitable for sustaining human life", then yes, we're likely doing the opposite of terraforming here on Earth. However, the things we're doing on Earth would, if applied to Mars, would make it more suitable for humans, not less.
(I'm ignoring Mars's lack of a magnetosphere and other technical hurdles, large and small)
Points 1-6 are all correct, and all reflect on Musk being a highly successful entrepreneur.
Still waiting for any points 7+ related to in what way he is not a dickhead.
To be clear, I am not saying Musk is or isn't a dickhead, just that none of the points you make relate to the question.
Point 1 is a bit off, as PayPal know-how was acquired and merged into another business creating what we know know it as. To say Musk Created PayPal is not entirely accurate.
That being said @elonmusk … you can count on me for £GBP25 in cash, £100 in Tesco Clubcard vouchers and a packet of Toffo’s to add to your war chest
That being said @elonmusk … you can count on me for £GBP25 in cash, £100 in Tesco Clubcard vouchers and a packet of Toffo’s to add to your war chest
I am going to rival bid with 250 bazooka Joe comics and a book of green shield stamps. If that isn’t enough I’m going to break out the Embassy cigarette tokens.
I like how you forget to mention:
1) Calling Vernon Unsworth a peado guy because he managed to save those Thai schoolboys without Musk's stupid, stupid offer of automated subs. Then hiding behind the US law system to protect him from his own shithousery.
2) Manipulating the stock prices of his own company via Twitter, either raising or lowering it, from publishing inane tweets.
3) His very well documented views on COVID19, almost entirely based on total utter bullshit.
4) Being a total, unlikable, c**t.
Out of all the points you raised, all bar one is done with his money not his vision, input, or "technical ability". PayPal, in itself, while was a game changer has turned in to a mirror of Musk's behaviour. A scumbag of a company and one that people are actively going out of their way to avoid using. And Tesla? Fair enough, it's popular. So were cabbage patch kids, but at least cabbage patch kids didn't freeze in the winter or soak an occupants boot compartment because the designers thought they knew better when it come to car design.
If there is anyone who needs to take even a second opinion on their critical thinking, it's you.
And the overhyped, under-researched, poorly implemented features on products. ('autonmous' driving, the 'unbreakable' windows on the cybertruck that easily broke from an impact with a baseball, The entirety of the Hyperloop, etc.)
and announcing that [product] is a year away, ORDER NOW! (Still waiting for the cybertruck to be something one could order, not that I would)
luxury priced cars with worse QA checking than the cheapest Kia/Hynudai/Honda on the market.
customer-hostile behavior for post-sales support, and vindictively targeting customers who dare to point out these problems publicly.
I could go on, but I have better things to waste a friday afternoon on.
He's just doing what other MAGA sheep do, and calling anything he doesn't like by the insult du jour. It used to be "libtard", but now "woke" is the poison word of the moment.
Actually saw a snippet yesterday from some right wing crazy idiot I've never heard of but who supposedly has a half million subscribers for his pod/video cast calling people who support Ukraine over Russia "woke". So Mr. Teejay is just following the herd like a good little sheep and using the preferred insult for everything the right wing crazies are against.
"He's just doing what other MAGA sheep do"
Remember, kiddies, MAGA stands for Muppets Annoying Genuine Americans. Please, pass it on wherever you see an idiot wearing the hat.
This public service announcement brought to you by the letter T and the number e; we now return you to your usual ElReg weekend warriors bickering.
No actual republicans or democrats were harmed during the making of this PSA.
>By your definition a dickhead is someone who succeeded in:
>1. Creating a very innovative payment processor.
PayPal (Confinity at the time) was formed in 1998 by Ken Howery, Luke Nosek, Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Yu Pan, and Russel Simmons. Paypal eventually fired Musk in 2000 (I believe it was.)
>2. Creating the most successful rocket launching organisation (sic) since the 1960s / 70s
Founders Fund footed the bill on SpaceX for the most part.
>3. Creating the most successful electric car company.
Tesla Motors was founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in San Carlos, California.
>4. Creating the most successful satellite based ISP.
Hard to say it's the most successful when it has not even entered the commercial market yet.
>5. Saving a social media network from authoritarian censorship.
By authoritarian censorship I presume you mean the truth. The Saudi's are buying into Twitter, along side your hero, who are literal authoritarian censors.
>6. Amassing a net worth of more than a quarter of a TRILLION dollars through aforementioned efforts.
Yes, as he does not risk his own cash, relying on outside investors to fund his projects.
>You should consider taking a third opinion on your critical thinking and reasoning skills…
And you need to stop taking single sources of info as gospel. Musk is lucky and knows how to spin the press with wild imaginative concepts. If his fourth SpaceX launch had failed, he'd be minor mention in history today. Some of his companies work because he hires good people. Where is the promised Tesla autonomous driving commercial truck that was promised for 2020, then 2021, then 2022, now it's 2023? Why is the LA - San Francisco Hyperloop still only a prototype with nothing to show for it? The Vegas Loop is a concrete tunnel with chauffeured Tesla's where it was supposed to be 3-4 times the speed and totally autonomous.
"your critical thinking and reasoning skills" indeed.
“By authoritarian censorship I presume you mean the truth. The Saudi's are buying into Twitter, along side your hero, who are literal authoritarian censors.”
You’ve got that totally the wrong way round. The Saudis have already a large stake in Twitter and they’re not happy with Musk buying it up. You reall y prefer authoritarian Saudis to Musk ?
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1) Helped create a payment processor, was kicked out for his behavioural problems and poor decisions, which was then sold to another company, to then go on to become Paypal.
2) Invested in an already existing company that had to spend significant resources in handling him.
3) Tesla started in 2003, Musk did not become join Tesla and become CEO until 2008, then sued for the actual founder of Tesla, for the title of "Founder". Since his time as CEO, build quality has decreased. It used to be on par with BMW, now, you're lucky if it's up to Dodge's "standards".
4) I'll give you that one, unless of course you realise his Muskiness is looking for ways to try and control the narrative, which leads on to 5.
5) He has an overwhelming desire to control the narrative. His continual fuckups at Twitter by claiming to champion free speech, then putting restrictions on said free speech, shows him to be a narcissistic sociopath, coupled with "shutting down unnecessary server to improve performance" which took out 2FA shows he has no idea about tech, or coding.
6) Exploiting workers, gaming the stock market and paying paltry fines to the SEC is how he garnered his filthy lucre.
Maybe you should extract your tongue from the brown hole of Musk, and work on your own critical thinking skills.
Nah, you’d be required to buy an upfront license at the beginning of the year for the number of likes you expected to receive. Then, if you got more, an audit would ensue during which it would be demonstrated that the number of Likes displayed on the tweets were actually substantial underestimates, plus you’re responsible for your Uncle Bernard’s likes too. At list price. With RPI inflation and penalty interest backdated to the launch of Twitter.
First he's saying he's putting in £21B of his own money and the rest from banks. Now he's bringing other investors on board. How much of his own money will actually end up in the pot and will he personally own enough of Twitter to actually say he owns it and have the right to control it? How much of the Morgan Stanly et al money is loans he's responsible for and how much is it them investing directly?
It's the old problem of the Super rich, they dont leave money lying around, it gets taxed that way. So you leave it in shares were you can point to the share price and say "Wow, look how rich I am!". But should you actually need to access those riches, well then you need to sell those shares. And what happens, when people realise you're selling shares in your own company, other people sell as well, and the share price tanks, and suddenly you're not as rich as you thought. And if you keep selling shares, the price tanks further and suddenly, someone else might buy up enough shares to take control off you.
So Elon sold $8billion of Tesla stock, and the share price tanked by about 15%. Selling more stock would now not get him as much as he had planned on. And if he sold more, the price would likely fall further and he would be even poorer. What to do, what to do? Well, call up a few friends and ask them to put in some money. Don't they also want to back him up? Haven't they seen how good he's done with all his other firms?
You also have to keep in mind that Morgan Stanley have put up the $21 billion based on collateral of Elon's other holdings. So if he causes the share prices to tank further, suddenly Morgan Stanley might decide the collateral is not enough and pull out (or demand a greater slice of the pie).
For a clearly very smart man, the fact that he didn't see this coming is somewhat surprising...
I'm thinking there's also dilution. Musk's reduced his Tesla shareholding to 25%(?) reducing the control he has over that bank. Then as you say, those remaining shares secure all Musk's other borrowing, making the mother of all margin calls more likely.
Guessing that could lead to some interesting scenarios, like rushing a SpaceX IPO to raise cash to pay debt obligations triggered by a falling Tesla share price. Rising inflation and interest rates won't help either.
Tesla stock likely will tank at some point. They sell poorly designed, poorly built cars with shifty software. it's highly unlikely that it will ever grow to outsell the 10 biggest car manufacturers combined, and that's what would need to happen to justify the current valuation. We already see plenty of other electric cars that are better than Telsas in every way, and they will only get better.
It doesn't matter how poor the cars are. Why? Because he sells them to stupid fools who don't buy them for their quality but to virtue signal that they are helping to solve some mythical crisis. It's actually a good business model, "Sell toy cars to stupid people!"
When they break charge them exorbitant prices for new batteries or repairs or sell them another toy car! What could possibly go wrong!
For clearly a very smart man, the fact that he didn’t see this coming is somewhat surprising
“Fact”? Do you know he didn’t see it coming for a fact, or is it all planned in? I find it somewhat surprising that people think Musk is doing this all by himself and not using a number of advisers.
Easy. Perfectly normal business. Control at least cost. And maximise return against investment which is malleable.
So invest $100 and get back $110 you make 10%.
But get some other lunkhead to fund your $100, pay him $1 interest you made 900%.
AND the lunkhead loses sleep cos if the investment tanks and you declare bankruptcy he is the one who lost $100, not you.
Because years of careful work by hundreds of dedicated staff is nothing compared to the smarts of the man who tweeted "pedo guy" at a rescue worker.
What a fantastic place this world will be when Elon takes over the moderation of Twitter. What a wondrous world of liberty as we get to listen to the most selfish man in the world pontificate about all sorts of shit he barely understands.
That'll save "freedom of expression"
FFS
of course not every investment works out. But I've seen too many stupid ideas and obvious scams such as Theranos get funding while worthwhile projects get ignored. I've met with enough VCs to know that most aren't qualified to judge whether technical claims are feasible, yet they are the ones handing out the cash.
If Emperor Musk had brought in Bezos and Zuck.
But... there is still time.
Personally, I hope all involved lose a lot of pocket change in this. But Mush should have paid for it all out of his own... sorry Tesla's pocket. Why would the richest man in the world need loans for this deal? Something smells here. Perhaps he isn't as rich as his sycophants like to make out?
This has been explained a number of times but try this exercise.
Look at the things you own. Include any investments, pension rights etc. How much money would they be worth if you sold them? (For this purpose just take the present valuation less the outstanding amount of any loans taken to buy them.) That, plus any money you have in the bank or your pocket, is what you are worth in the way in which these personal valuations are made.
How much of that could you actually spend? Only the money in your bank and your pocket; this is what's known as liquid assets. You probably wouldn't even want to spend that much on a single purchase. If you wanted to buy something big you'd have to sell some of the other stuff or borrow against its value and possibly get some of your mates to chip in if it's something that they might want to share.
Musky is taking a leaf out of the Donald J Trump book of 'Flim-flam and Grift'.
Put up only a bit of money and get a load of other suckers on board.
Pump the stock, get control and quietly sell your holdings before anyone notices.
Look at the SPAC deal that he used to float Trump Social. He's got out with double if not triple his original investment leaving other investors to carry the loss.
I'd avoid anything Mucky Musk touches outside of Tesla and Space-X.
And who determines what a lie is!
Is "Global Warming is a hoax" a lie!? Can you unequivocally prove that it is a lie!
Was "The vaccine will not prevent infection and spread of covid?" a lie!? We now know that it does not, but that statement would have got you banned on Twitter!
Is "The 2020 US presidential election has so many irregularities that it warrants a full investigation to identify any fraud!" a lie!? Can you or anyone "prove" that the election was 100% fair and secure? (Saying "there was no evidence" is not proof!)
Who gets to say what a lie is!? When anyone, corporation or government, claims to be the arbiter of Truth they should be viewed with the utmost skepticism!
What is a harmful lie? Let me give you an example you probably won't like!
"Hands up don't shoot!" This was the lie spread by the Left Wing media after the Ferguson MO police shooting. This lie caused riots that cost millions in damages and cost several lives. Yet not one social media site took down this lie even when it was proven in court that is was a lie! To this day the left continues to repeat this lie!
When you moderate one side of an argument you are not a moderator, you are a censor!
Are you auditioning for the job of Trump's speechwriter? If so, good luck. You will need it.I don't think you are all that positive about the big lie to get him to give you a job.
Saying 'there was no evidence is not proof' is not a good start. Mike Pillow and Rudi have all the evidence except that it is written in invisible ink and no one can remember the formula to make it appear.
*** Is "The 2020 US presidential election has so many irregularities that it warrants a full investigation to identify any fraud!" a lie!? ***
Yes, when all the evidence shows that the tiny amount of fraud found would not change the results (also interesting to find that the vast majority of the fraud found was perpetrated by the side crying about the election).
*** Can you or anyone "prove" that the election was 100% fair and secure? (Saying "there was no evidence" is not proof!) ***
You have a misunderstanding of the burden of proof. It is YOUR job to prove your claim of a "stolen election".
There's plenty of evidence, and all of it points to a fair and square election. Your candidate lost; get over it.
There have been so many allegations, and Trump and all the other similarly simple minded idiots ignore it when facts prove them wrong.
Early on Smartmatic machines were supposedly part of the steal, but when it turned out they weren't even used in any of the states at issue they had to abandon that lie.
They totally ignore how NO machines could have changed votes because multiple hand recounts were done in the states where fraud was alleged. If the machines were switching the votes, it would show up in the hand recounts (none of them were using electronic voting machines that produce no paper trail)
I won't even justify the Chinese ballots with bamboo fibers and Italian defense satellites with a rebuttal because anyone dumb enough to believe that shit is so far gone they should just do the world a favor and shoot them in themselves in the head so the rest of us don't have to listen to their drivel.
So how was the election stolen? Which of the dozen or so different methods that were alleged do you believe in? Or do you believe in all of them, that somehow rather than using one method to steal an election it makes more sense to use a dozen different methods at once even though you vastly increase your chance of being caught and prosecuted?
And how come no one has been criminally charged yet? These "steals" all happened in states mostly or totally controlled by republicans. So where are the indictments? Are you saying that such a vast conspiracy involving thousands and thousands of people was somehow executed so well that no one will ever get charged? If that's the case I want the "stealers" running the government because executing such a vast conspiracy and not getting caught proves they are far more competent than the other side who can't even convict one of them!
To say nothing of the fact that whoever supposedly "stole" the election didn't bother to similarly steal a couple seats in close races in the Senate (they already had the House), which would have given the Democrats actual power on Capitol Hill, as opposed to just the appearance of power by gaining the Oval Office.
Is "The 2020 US presidential election has so many irregularities that it warrants a full investigation to identify any fraud!" a lie!? Can you or anyone "prove" that the election was 100% fair and secure? (Saying "there was no evidence" is not proof!)
/s
Negative proof of election fraud means just what it says. There was no major election fraud found (except by some Republicans) A negative does not prove a positive.Otherwise, you are saying. I cannot prove he is lying but I have not exhausted all the possible forms of torture on this person. therefore, he MUST be lying!
America seems to be filled with lots of people with poor intelect and poor reasoning.
Businesses that run customer support twitter accounts will be happy to pay for their account if it gives them features that help them do their work. Same with other business accounts which are run as part of marketing, they would just roll up the charges as part of their advertising budgets.
At some point either the advertising budget runs out or manglement starts to take a look at what they get for their money. I suspect that right now there's an advertising bubble as the entire consumer side of the internet seems to depend on it and that it's going to get very messy when it bursts.
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