After the road with Tesla, space with SpaceX, internet with Twitter. The American billionaire Elon Musk will buy the famous social network by acquiring all of its shares at a price of 54.20 dollars per unit, announced Monday April 25 Twitter in a press release. Enough to value the company at around 44 billion dollars (41 billion euros).
Iconoclast and fervent Liberian, the richest man in the world becomes the owner of the platform he considers “the digital public square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated”, according to the press release published Monday evening. How will the deal end? What changes can we expect on Twitter? Franceinfo summarizes in three questions.
Why is Elon Musk buying Twitter?
Probably first because like Donald Trump in his time, Elon Musk is a frenetic user of Twitter. Followed by more than 83 million subscribers, the businessman uses his account almost every day to give news of his companies, jokes or launch provocations.
It has already played tricks on him. In August 2018, the billionaire announced that he had the necessary funding to withdraw Tesla from the stock market for $420 per share. A bravado not really to the taste of the regulator of the American Stock Exchange, the SEC, which had imposed on him to cede the chairmanship of the board of directors of Tesla, to pay a fine of 20 million dollars and subsequently demanded that his tweets directly related to Tesla’s business are pre-approved by a competent lawyer.
Elon Musk is also not kind to Twitter’s moderation policy, which he considers too interventionist. During a TED interview broadcast on April 14, the boss of Tesla had indicated that he wanted to take over the social network to transform it into “an inclusive arena for free speech”.
In the press release formalizing the takeover, Elon Musk particularly insisted on this point. “Free speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital public square where issues vital to the future of humanity are debated”he says.
In what context does this acquisition take place?
Elon Musk has been eyeing the social network for several weeks. At the beginning of the month, the billionaire had already acquired 9% of the shares of the company, and no longer made any secret of his desire to become its owner. At the time, the members of the board of directors had little taste for the maneuver, and had adopted a complex financial mechanism to prevent it from taking action, as soon as Elon Musk would have got his hands on 15 % of share volume.
But the situation has changed rapidly over the past few hours. Citing close sources, the Wall Street Journal reported that the administrators of Twitter had finally agreed to reconsider the purchase proposal made by Elon Musk, after he met privately on Friday with several other shareholders.
Discussions took place between the two camps on Sunday, after the boss of Tesla said on Thursday that he had secured the sum necessary for this transaction, according to the American business daily. “Twitter takes a fresh look at the offer and is more likely than before to seek to negotiate”wrote the wall street journal.
What will this change for Twitter users?
In the text formalizing the sale of Twitter, Elon Musk says he wants to make the social network “better than ever improving the product with new features”give full transparency on the operation of its algorithm “to increase confidence” users, or fight against unwanted messages automatically published by robots.
But the billionaire has above all promised to transform the social network to make it “the platform for freedom of expression around the world” and explained that in his view this was an issue of “civilization” major. “I hope even my worst critics stay on Twitter, that’s what free speech means”he tweeted on Monday.
I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
This very broad conception of freedom of expression suggests to some observers that Elon Musk could reauthorize deleted accounts, including that of Donald Trump and some of his supporters. But as noted by New York Times, the boss of Tesla may not have as much elbow room as he would like on this subject: the European Union indeed adopted on Saturday new legislation on online platforms, the “Digital Services Act”. The text provides for a fine of up to 6% of turnover to be imposed on networks that moderate illegal content too lightly. In France, this concerns in particular racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic remarks or inciting racial, ethnic and religious hatred. What did not fail to note the French Secretary of State in charge of Digital, Cédric O.
There are some interesting things in what@elonmusk wants to push for @Twitterbut remember that the #DigitalServicesAct – and therefore the obligation to fight against misinformation, online hatred, etc. – will apply regardless of the ideology of its owner. #PFUE2022
— Cedric O (@cedric_o) April 25, 2022
On the other hand, Elon Musk’s takeover could push Twitter to accelerate its support for cryptocurrencies, notes a specialist journalist on Twitter.
Twitter was also retained by @stripe as the first partner to pay its customers in cryptos
Since Friday, creators of paid content on Twitter can thus receive their income in stablecoins $USDC (via the sidechain @0xPolygon)
— Gregory Raymond (@gregory_raymond) April 25, 2022
The billionaire, whose fortune estimated at $265 billion is essentially derived from shares in his companies Tesla and SpaceX, is indeed a strong supporter of cryptoassets. In May 2021, he announced that Tesla would accept payments in bitcoin, before then backtracking, citing the environmental impact of this technology. This did not prevent him from taking to Twitter to praise Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency originally a parody, helping to boost the price.