Yahoo Finance - April 25th, 2022
Saw what the rampant spread of disinformation and hate speech on social media did to societies back when it was basically a free-for-all?
Here comes round 2.
There must be some value in it.
But not to me. I don't tweet.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
What are you talking about?
Sigh.
I think Musk gets some great things done when he's got a big goal and the focus to get there. The guy who runs SpaceX is awesome. But the world would be better with less Twitter Musk, not more. I think this will distract him from things that are truly useful to the world at best case. Worst case is pretty bad for the world in general.
Toebra said:In reply to GameboyRMH :
What are you talking about?
There have been genocides that probably wouldn't have happened if not for social media amplifying hate speech, a resurgence of conspiratorial nonsense thinking including anti-vaccine beliefs just to name one particularly damaging one, and to avoid being too political, a massive rise in the popularity of politicians and political parties who simply don't care for the truth one bit, especially in the first world.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
He's the world's most intelligent idiot. At least in the top 5
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Anything that breaks up the one sided echo chamber that somehow allows 3% of Twitter users to control world wide policies is a good thing.
Second paragraph deleted as unnecessary.
Twitter went public in November of 2013 for $41 per share...8.5 years later, on April 1st (the day before Musk announced that he was buying shares of Twitter), it was trading at $39 per share.
During that same time period, the S&P 500 has gone from 1,784 to 4,583 which is a 157% increase. This is a publicly traded company and as such it has a fiduciary obligation to do what's in the best interest of it's shareholders which is clearly to let Elon take the company private for $54.20 per share.
This feels like another Elon Musk 5D chess move. I'm not sure he really wants to own it.
Financing secured with $25.5 billion of new debt. I haven’t seen the rate but at 5% the interest alone exceeds 2021 EBITDA and 88% of expected 2022 EBITDA. Go private at 9 times sales! Total paid in capital was $9 billion. Better grow fast. The question is: When’s the IPO?
For the brief period that he owns it, I'm sure the speech will be very free as long as it doesn't pertain to him.
Mr_Asa said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
He's the world's most intelligent idiot. At least in the top 5
I see him as what would happen if you gave an average, or perhaps stereotypical, Silicon Valley tech bro a gazillion dollars. They all talked about how reusable rockets and practical electric cars could be done for years before Musk had the cash to actually try it and prove that it would work.
Our Lord and Savior Elon Musk 
GameboyRMH said:Mr_Asa said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
He's the world's most intelligent idiot. At least in the top 5
I see him as what would happen if you gave an average, or perhaps stereotypical, Silicon Valley tech bro a gazillion dollars. They all talked about how reusable rockets and practical electric cars could be done for years before Musk had the cash to actually try it and prove that it would work.
I don't think you're giving him quite enough credit. His vision, ability to see a process through to the "end" ("end" meaning off the ground and driving revenue), and ability to make people believe and buy into it are not stereotypical of any tech bro.
I need to make something elon wants. He will spend stupid money if he wants a thing.
In reply to mtn :
If you dislike someone, their accomplishments, capabilities, and other positive qualities ceast to exist.
mtn said:GameboyRMH said:Mr_Asa said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
He's the world's most intelligent idiot. At least in the top 5
I see him as what would happen if you gave an average, or perhaps stereotypical, Silicon Valley tech bro a gazillion dollars. They all talked about how reusable rockets and practical electric cars could be done for years before Musk had the cash to actually try it and prove that it would work.
I don't think you're giving him quite enough credit. His vision, ability to see a process through to the "end" ("end" meaning off the ground and driving revenue), and ability to make people believe and buy into it are not stereotypical of any tech bro.
Besides, it's backwards. He made the gazillion dollars by building reusable rockets and practical electric cars. He walked away from the PayPal sale with a war chest of $175 million - not peanuts, but not a unique payout for Silicon Valley tech bros. Turning around and using that seed money to build one of the most influential automakers as well as totally disrupting the launch industry, that's what sets him apart. The gazillion dollars is the result and it's almost all on paper.
But he unfortunately is still human and Twitter gave him a platform to make ill-considered remarks to tens of millions of people instantly. It doesn't help anyone.
I lied, there's one instance where it helped. Ukraine basically approving Starlink and asking Musk directly for hundreds of dishes, that was done over Twitter. Doesn't balance out the rest of the crap he puts out there and the distraction it causes, though.
mtn said:GameboyRMH said:Mr_Asa said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
He's the world's most intelligent idiot. At least in the top 5
I see him as what would happen if you gave an average, or perhaps stereotypical, Silicon Valley tech bro a gazillion dollars. They all talked about how reusable rockets and practical electric cars could be done for years before Musk had the cash to actually try it and prove that it would work.
I don't think you're giving him quite enough credit. His vision, ability to see a process through to the "end" ("end" meaning off the ground and driving revenue), and ability to make people believe and buy into it are not stereotypical of any tech bro.
My understanding is that he made these ideas work by simply having enough to spend on them after making a ton of money through everyone having to suffer through Paypal practically having a monopoly on online consumer-to-consumer payments for a long time. The guy speaks in edgy memes and juvenile humor which is peak tech bro to me - I see Tesla in particular as succeeding despite, rather than because of, his PR efforts. He's apparently also made himself a reputation as an unapproachable shiny happy person boss who does Jobs-style "elevator firings" (although they apparently tend to happen in his office at least). SpaceX and Tesla have both earned reputations as toxic workplaces as a result.
He couldn't get Elon Jet twitter guy banned, so he's buying the company.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I'm not going to say that Musk hasn't accomplished anything (he clearly has a penchant for sizing up opportunities and striking when the iron is hot) but I also think his portrayal as a self-made man of means is a bit inaccurate.
He was born in South Africa to an extremely wealthy family that profited off an emerald mine in Zambia and has fought to erase the existence of Tesla's actual founders and obscured his involvement with PayPal as well.
These facts aren't unique among Silicon Valley tech bro CEO types - many of them have revisionist tendencies with regard to their own contributions, are cutthroat businesspeople and come from very privileged upbringings - but I would definitely have a higher opinion on him if he didn't get on Twitter and say just breathtakingly stupid things with regularity in an attempt to paint himself as some kind of folk hero.
Keith Tanner said:Besides, it's backwards. He made the gazillion dollars by building reusable rockets and practical electric cars. He walked away from the PayPal sale with a war chest of $175 million - not peanuts, but not a unique payout for Silicon Valley tech bros. Turning around and using that seed money to build one of the most influential automakers as well as totally disrupting the launch industry, that's what sets him apart. The gazillion dollars is the result and it's almost all on paper.
But he unfortunately is still human and Twitter gave him a platform to make ill-considered remarks to tens of millions of people instantly. It doesn't help anyone.
I lied, there's one instance where it helped. Ukraine basically approving Starlink and asking Musk directly for hundreds of dishes, that was done over Twitter. Doesn't balance out the rest of the crap he puts out there and the distraction it causes, though.
$175 million is just as much of a gazillion as $44 billion or whatever he has now. By "tech bro" I don't mean a tech executive, but rather a white-collar tech employee (although sometimes there isn't much difference, here we are dicussing exhibit A). I'm sure Sergey Brin could've totally made a profitable electric car company instead of building a personal airship with that kind of money if he wanted to.
What's a twitter?
I'm thinking he overpaid.
By 43.99 Billion dollars.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I haven't looked into it, but I've heard there are some red flags with the Ukraine Starlink thing as well
"Peak tech bro" damn near made me choke!
Mr_Asa said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
I haven't looked into it, but I've heard there are some red flags with the Ukraine Starlink thing as well
Yeah, you're gonna have to follow that up with a little more actual information before it becomes more than random social media rumor. Whatever, I was trying to think of where Twitter Musk did something good instead of stupid/boneheaded/illegal. If that has been disqualified, I've got nothin.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
He did make electric cars cool.
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