When Tesla CEO Elon Musk began accumulating Twitter shares earlier this year and subsequently made an offer to buy the company, a number of prominent tech and business figures sent him texts with ideas, advice and financial offers.
Musk has since tried to renege on his $44 billion takeover offer, and is currently suing Twitter to force it to do so. The case is progressing through a Delaware court, and on Thursday some of these text messages were released as evidence.
Here is a summary of the most important and interesting messaging processes:
Joe Lonsdale, Technical Investor
March 24th: “Love Your tweet that Twitter’s algorithm should be open source. I’m actually going to talk to over 100 members of Congress tomorrow at the GOP policy retreat, and this is one of the ideas I’m going to put forward to lobby for control of the big tech companies. Now I can cite you so I can sound less crazy. Our public squares do not need superficial, arbitrary censorship.”
On April 4, when it was revealed that Musk had acquired a 9.2 percent stake in the company, Lonsdale continued, “I’m excited to see the stake in Twitter. I hope you can make an impact. I bet the board doesn’t even get that.” Full reports or see any report on censorship decisions and micro-gangs that happen on the site, but they should.”
He continued again on April 16: “Haha even Governor de Santis called me now offering to
Ideas about how to help you, and he was angry with the board and said the public supported you. Let me know if you or anyone on your side wants to chat with him.”
Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter
Dorsey responded to the same tweet he referenced in Lonsdale on March 24: “Yes, a new platform is needed. This can’t be a company. That’s why I left.”
Musk: “Okay. What should it look like?”
Dorsey: “I think it has to be an open source protocol, funded by some kind of organization that doesn’t own the protocol, just develop it. A bit like what Signal did. You can’t have an model, otherwise you’ll have A space that governments and advertisers will try to influence and control.
Will MacAskill, Professor of Philosophy at Oxford
Mar 29: “Hey – I saw your Twitter poll about the site and freedom of expression. Not sure if that’s what you had in mind, but my collaborator is an investor and CEO. FTX Sam Bankman-Fried has been interested in buying it for some time and making it better for the world. If you want to talk to him about a potential joint effort in this direction, I’ll give you his number and it’s on Signal.
Musk: “Does he have a lot of money?”
Will McCaskill
McCaskill, March 30: “It depends on your definition of ‘big’! He’s $24 billion, and his employees have raised that to $30 billion. I asked how much he could contribute in principle, and he said, ‘It would be easy to get’ On 1-3 billion US dollars” and it could become 3-8 billion dollars, even 8-15 billion dollars may be possible, but it requires financing.
Sam Bankman-Fried
Bankmann-Fried and Musk contacted later but the messages revolved mostly around the logistical meeting. Other messages indicate that Bankman-Fried was willing to pay up to $5 billion to help finance Musk’s acquisition.
Matthias Dobfner, CEO of Axel Springer
March 30: “Why don’t you buy Twitter? We run it for you to make it a real platform for freedom of expression. It will be a real contribution to democracy.”
Musk: “Interesting idea.”
Matthias Dobfner
Dobfner: “I’m serious. It’s possible. It would be fun.”
On April 6, he provided more detailed ideas for the platform.
unknown sender
The next set of texts was sent by an unknown person because it only appears as a phone number, on April 4th, and there was no response from Musk.
Anonymous sender Apr 4th: “Congratulations!! The above article outlines some of the things that might happen. Step 1: Blame the platform for its users Step 2: Coordinated pressure campaign Step 3: Remove the platform, but it won’t be It’s easy. It will be a war. Let the battle begin.”
“It would be a delicate game to allow right-wingers to return to Twitter,” he added.
Joe Rogan, podcast host
April 4th: “Will you free Twitter from censorship?”
Musk: “I’ll give advice they may or may not choose.”
Joe Rogan
kimbal mask
Musk also texted his brother Kimball, a businessman and Tesla board member, on April 9: I have an idea for a blockchain social media system that does payments and SMS. You have to pay a small amount to register your message on the thread, which will cut off the vast majority of spam and bots. Thus freedom of expression is guaranteed.”
kimbal mask
Kimbal Musk: “I’d like to know more. I’ve gone in depth.”Web3Not in cryptocurrencies.
“Will you have to pay for a token associated with the service? You have to keep the token in your wallet to post. It doesn’t have to be expensive, it will only increase in value over time. Blockchain prevents people from deleting tweets. This is a pros and cons but let the games begin!” “.
Larry Ellison
On April 20, Musk sent a text message to Larry Ellison, co-founder ofOracleAnd a former Tesla board member: “Is there any interest in participating in the Twitter deal?”
Larry Ellison
Ellison: “Yeah…of course.”
Musk: “Roughly how much is it in dollars? I’m not forcing you to do anything, but the deal is too much, so I have to reduce or fire some of the participants.”
Ellison: “A billion…or whatever you recommend.”
Musk: “I’d recommend maybe $2 billion or more. The deal has very high potential and I’d rather get you than anyone else.”
Ellison: “I agree it has a lot of potential… and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”