Technology

59398 readers

2711 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

822

Elon Musk Bought Twitter to Settle His Jet-Tracking Beef, New Book Claims (gizmodo.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

176 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Elon Musk purchased shares of Twitter after unsuccessfully petitioning the CEO to remove a Twitter account tracking his private jet.
Musk's personal gripes played a key role in his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
Musk banned the account after promising not to, highlighting his prioritization of getting his way over free speech.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/ttBv9

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

He wasn't trying to short Twitter. He was trying to pump and dump. Though the dumping probably would have been done more tactfully than the standard pump and dump. Musk getting publicity for holding the stock helps to keep the value up. Tesla's been inflated forever, and he thought he could do the same with Twitter.

Yes, the primary reason he bought Twitter is that he screwed up during his pump and dump scheme. There are several reasons he was looking at Twitter in particular, including the jet tracking, how much he loves Twitter anyway, his hate for being told what he can and can not post, etc. I also suspect he's lost most of the people who will tell him the truth and is now surrounded by right-wing grifters (for politics and aiming his money, they're smart enough to not try to take the money directly). All these reasons were part of why the pump and dump was plausible as something else, and why it was Twitter that it happened to. Probably not even Musk knows how much of the intent to buy was legit (though not for 44b) and how much of it was the pump and dump.

He had a scheme; I don't know that I'd call it grand.