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Notes -
I tend to prefer “twitlord,” for continuity with the old Tumblr dialect.
Regarding your summary, let’s see if I can clear anything up.
Musk made his offer, and I guess some people complained about how illiberal it would. I don’t know, I didn’t see much of that firsthand. There was a second, parallel debate on whether the offer was financially stupid/sound/5D chess on his part, and that’s what got more play around here.
Musk tried to back out, allegedly because of new information about bots. Of course, his own financial valuation and/or mental state may have changed, too. This was very upsetting to anyone who lost money when his public statements pushed the price around. It was also offensive to the state of Delaware, which let Twitter take Musk to court.
Musk is currently trying to obviate said court date by closing the deal. As usual, he is loudly broadcasting his intentions, whether or not that will actually benefit him. The employees he’s promised to lay off have engaged in the traditional response: hand wringing and asserting one’s necessity.
I predict Musk will buy, Musk will sack a large but <75% fraction of the workforce, and Twitter will continue operating more or less as it has for years. No bets on unbanning any prominent Republicans.
I predict that he will unban a few prominent people, but that trump does not return to twitter.
He'll say he won't return and he's sticking with Truth Social. But if Elon unbans him (as seems likely), he won't be able to resist for very long.
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If he does not unban trump it will be a major disappointment for Trump and Elon's fans and also hurt Elon's investment. Unbanning Trump would presumably increase twitter's value by boosting engagement. Of course, Trump may not choose to return if unbanned, but I think he will.
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He was going to pay for Twitter by selling/borrowing against Tesla stock. After he made the offer there was a market downturn. Both Twitter and Tesla stock were trading lower, however, the price he would pay for Twitter was locked in beforehand at a higher price. So, to complete the deal, he would both have to overpay for Twitter and sell a greater share of his Tesla stake to complete the deal: a double whammy to his personal balance sheet.
At the minimum he alleged the bs about bots and go to court to try to renegotiate the deal, but the judge seemed pretty unsympathetic so he decided to skip the risks of being deposed and ruled against and closed after all.
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