Trying to predict what Elon Musk, the American billionaire and founder and owner of electric car maker Tesla, will do from day to day is like trying to catch a moonlight by hand. But it seems that the rules of the game have changed after Musk announced, the day before yesterday, his desire to buy the social networking platform company “Twitter” at the same price that he offered months ago; It is $54.20 per share, although the stock has lost about a third of its value since it pulled out of the purchase deal last July.
At the beginning of an analysis published by Bloomberg Agency, Mark Gonglove, an economic analyst, wonders what this move means, both for Musk and for Twitter, and whether Musk’s willingness to end legal disputes and buy the company he has been criticizing over the past months is good or bad news for the company. to either party.
The answer to these questions, Gongloff says, depends on what Musk can see tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and so on. It may even have been easier to put the egg back into its broken shell than to anticipate Musk’s actions.
It seems that Musk’s decision, which he announced six months ago, was more deliberate than his decision to post a tweet on Twitter years ago, about his intention to delist Tesla shares from the stock exchange, which caused him a major legal crisis with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, or His decision to ridicule the body of Bill Gates, founder of the giant software company “Microsoft”, or to claim the ability of the spacecraft he is developing to become a boat.
Such things are not usually done by CEOs, according to Gongloff, the former editor-in-chief of the US economic website “Fortune”.
But the announcement of his decision to buy Twitter six months ago led to a significant increase in its share price, and plunged him into a difficult legal crisis that he is trying to get out of.
Last month, Twitter shareholders voted to accept Musk’s takeover offer, although the latter withdrew that offer last July.
The news of Musk’s renewed willingness to buy Twitter is good for these shareholders, as Twitter’s share price rose by about 18% with Musk’s announcement of his desire.
Meanwhile, Twitter employees are less happy with the prospect of Musk taking over the deal. Meanwhile, Musk may be playing everyone, before announcing, shortly afterwards, that he had to back out of the $44 billion purchase of Twitter, at a time when the company does not yet know how to make money from the social networking platform.
And Musk’s reason for rescinding the Twitter purchase may be due to the possibility of losing his legal dispute with the company.
It is possible that at some point in the future, Mask will be able to cure Twitter’s situation, or at least keep its share price stable in the market; His personal makeup was a key element in the secret formula for the success of the electric car maker, Tesla, and its market value of $760 billion, although it does not generate large profits commensurate with this value. But the shelf life of this personal formula may be nearing its end.
And potential buyers of electric cars are turning away from Tesla because of Musk’s online behavior, including his frequent clash with political issues that CEOs usually avoid.
Tesla’s share price fell, the day before yesterday; Because of the idea that Musk might sell some of its shares to raise cash to fund the Twitter purchase.
Then came the sudden change of his position and his announcement to return to buying Twitter, and abandoning all the accusations he had leveled against it, to deal a blow to his credibility.
There is also a critical mass threatening Musk represented in his southern projects such as manufacturing missiles and building tunnels, up to the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which raises doubts about his ability to manage both “Tesla” or “Twitter” or both.
As for Twitter users and public opinion as a whole, things have returned to square one, and everyone is wondering how to exercise the censorship on the Twitter platform after its acquisition, and whether it will allow former US President Donald Trump to return to the platform, before the upcoming US presidential elections In 2024, after his account was banned.
There is also the issue of using artificial intelligence to power millions of fake Twitter accounts, which seems to be fresh in the mind of Musk, who said his peace plan for Ukraine was attacked by an army of automated Twitter accounts.