this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 104 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'm calling it now. Even if his aim was to not destroy Twitter from the inside, he will absolutely say that was his goal when it eventually happens.

People like this never, pathologically, ever, ever admit making a mistake.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 10 months ago (1 children)

He has too much money to give a shit, he lost more money than anyone has literally ever on this deal and he still has more money than almost anyone who's ever lived. Only way he stops being like this is if he drops dead from the inevitable overdose he's queuing up for himself

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

Eh most of that "money" is actually leveraged Tesla shares. Tesla shares that are overvalued. If he runs Tesla into the ground it's not actually implausible he goes bankrupt.

Of course for the billionaires "going bankrupt" isn't the same as it is for you an me. He'll still live a life of luxury we can't even imagine, he just won't control as much of the economy as he does now. And he can always scam his true believers out of some money by creating a startup promising to to build robot dolphins or whatever (it doesn't matter he's a hype man) which he'll never deliver and idiots will throw money at him.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Even if his aim was to not destroy Twitter from the inside, he will absolutely say that was his goal when it eventually happens.

Could that open him up to lawsuits from investors?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

His investors wanted this. Twitter was a huge threat to a few oil rich autocratic regimes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Larry Ellison (Oracle) were the biggest backers in the buy out deal. Saudi Arabia’s princes want to keep a tight control on information - remember how they butchered Khashoggi? With Qatar it was probably to prevent any slave labor deaths associated with FIFA from going viral. Larry Ellison probably just wanted all that juicy data, idk, he’s quiet but he gives a lot of money to right wing American causes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Doesn't mean they won't sue.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

At that point, he could just deactivate the entire platform

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I though Twitter is publicly traded and has stocks? That would mean that he definitely has a duty towards investors who bought the shares to lead the company in a responsible way, and if he claimed that he destroyed it on purpose, it should lead to a lawsuit from them. But I ain't no lawyer, only vaguely remember hearing something like that. Or does he own 100% of the shares himself and is the sole investor?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It used to be publicly traded, but it went private when he acquired it.

Which doesn't mean he doesn't answer to any investors anymore, of course. He got quite a lot of assistance with that acquisition.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Oh, I see. I guess that means there's basically no-one who can sue him, if there aren't any investors.

As long as he can repay any loans and stuff, then I suppose he can do whatever he wants with the company. If, however, he bancrupts it to the point of not being able to pay back anything the company owes, then he should be in trouble. I hope.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Fafaik he bought 100% of the shares.