Elon Musk has officially become the owner of Twitter, or Chief Twit as he likes to call himself, after completing a $44 billion buyout.
The world’s richest man began his interest in Twitter earlier in the year after purchasing large quantities of shares. Starting with an initial 5% in March, Musk had become the largest shareholder by the end of April and soon after announced his intention to buy up the whole company.
The last few months have been quite a saga with the deal on, off, on again, off again, taken to a legal enquiry, back on again, and it has finally gone through today.
Musk has always been a huge fan of Twitter and keen on promoting free speech and the existence of what he calls a ‘digital town-square’ – an online sphere where everyone’s voice can be heard. He has often criticised the firm though for stifling the views of many, especially right wing conservatives. This includes Donald Trump who was famously banned from Twitter last year following his election loss. One question on the minds of many is whether Musk will lift Trump’s ban on the platform and what impact it would have if he does.
It is widely expected that the buyout is going to lead to mass job losses as Musk streamlines the company. Already shown the door is previous CEO Parag Agrawal as well as a number of other top executives. In addition to their firing, it is estimated that around 50% of staff could lose their jobs in the coming days/weeks.
What this all means for twitter users is quite unknown. For now at least it doesn’t seem like there will be any major changes, but knowing Elon Musk, we can be quite sure that in time he will want to make his presence felt!
THINK LIKE AN ECONOMIST!
Q1. What is meant by the term takeover?
Q2. With reference to the article and your own knowledge, discuss the impact of takeovers on different stakeholders.
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