In other hostile takeover Tweets...
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@topspin the whole bot counting thing is the best evidence supporting your theory.
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@boomzilla said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@topspin the whole bot counting thing is the best evidence supporting your theory.
I'll admit I didn't pay attention to the numbers very much. Sure, Twitter inflated its membership numbers, but was it like "we have more bots than we thought, so our user numbers are really 10% lower", or was it closer to "our numbers were nigh-on fiction, it was 95% bots"?
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@PotatoEngineer Depends on who you ask. Twitter itself claims less than 5%, Musk fears it might be more than 20%. You can find any number in between that from other sources.
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Does that include the human Twitter users that act like bots?
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@Zerosquare The bots have better (A)I.
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@Zerosquare said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
Does that include the human Twitter users that act like bots?
There's apparently a culture of "if I follow you, you must follow me back," which turns every user who follows that into a follow-back bot. And then there's the lurkers, who do nothing but like and retweet.
Some people can be replaced by very small shell scripts.
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@PotatoEngineer said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
And then there's the lurkers, who do nothing
but like and retweet.FTFM
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@dcon said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@PotatoEngineer said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
And then there's the lurkers, who do nothing
but like and retweet.FTFM
The only reason I have a Twitter account is because someone hacked my spam-email-address-with-the-insecure-password to set up one. So I changed the password (on both the email and the Twitter), and now I have a do-nothing account I don't use at all.
Okay, I used it once, to contact a friend whose phone was out of earshot but who would occasionally pay attention to Twitter.
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@PotatoEngineer said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
The only reason I have a Twitter account is
From when I was commuting using CalTrain - their Twitter account had good updates about why trains were late/etc.
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@dcon said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@PotatoEngineer said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
The only reason I have a Twitter account is
From when I was commuting using CalTrain - their Twitter account had good updates about why trains were late/etc.
Some companies seem to use it more like a poor man's Firebase.
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@LaoC said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@dcon said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@PotatoEngineer said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
The only reason I have a Twitter account is
From when I was commuting using CalTrain - their Twitter account had good updates about why trains were late/etc.
Some companies seem to use it more like a poor man's Firebase.
Don't get me wrong - it wasn't the company's updates that made the feed good - it was the riders!
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I am getting this view of Elon Musk wearing a giant velvet hat negging on Twitter. The acquisition is following a PUA manual.
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@Gribnit I am reminded of:
Just needs a creepy-but-catchy Oompa Loompa song now.
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@dcon said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
Don't get me wrong - it wasn't the company's updates that made the feed good - it was the riders!
Semi-recent airport experience: security queue isn't moving. No official information or anything.
Twitter: tweets about one of the terminals being evacuated due to a fire/fire alarm.
Ah. That explains it. No need to worry then. Thanks for clearing up the situation, tweeting strangers who are annoyed at having to leave the building that is (ostensibly) on fire.
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@cvi said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
Semi-recent airport experience
On that same note... (warning: thread deviation!)
Returning from Hawaii, I was just getting into the really long security line. TSA stops someone about a dozen people ahead and re-routes the queue ropes. Off we go. Nope, not just adding a new loop to the queue - we were routed to a newly opened scanner in the next hallway! Shortest scanner line ever!
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@cvi said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
tweeting strangers who are annoyed at having to leave the building that is (ostensibly) on fire.
Simple solution: Allow them to remain in the building (if it's actually on fire). If it's not, well, we all know someone who can fix that.
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Commence weaseling
Elon Musk Says Twitter’s Lack of Info on Bots Breaches Merger Deal
Elon Musk said he believes Twitter Inc. is breaching their merger agreement by not meeting his demands for information about spam and fake accounts, injecting another twist into a takeover saga marked by the billionaire’s serial outbursts.
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@dcon something something due diligence?
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@Arantor said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@dcon something something due diligence?
Nope. It's because this is the next step to Sealing The Deal, per Mystique. I don't know the official name of this move, but basically he's trying to make Twitter feel devalued as a potential Score for others.
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@Arantor Not a lawyer but I've seen replies to that point saying that if there was fraud or misleading info then waiving due diligence doesn't matter.
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@dcon he's a Master Troll.
Until I see this deal actually happen, I'm going to believe all he does is market manipulation for personal fun and profit.
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I very rarely agree with Arse Tech commentariat, but there was one some time ago like:
His mouth wrote checks his ass couldn't cash
It would be a good showcase to the "why doesn't he cure world hunger by giving everyone a million bucks" crowd that being the richest person in the world because of billion billions in stocks doesn't mean he has that kind of money on hand.
IOW, whatever his reasons were, I believe he came up short when counting the sticks, and is trying to weasel out now. It was fun while it lasted.
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@topspin said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
for personal fun and profit.
Are we sure about the latter, though? Apparently taking out loans against Tesla shares didn't do anything good for those.
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@cvi said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@topspin said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
for personal fun and profit.
Are we sure about the latter, though? Apparently taking out loans against Tesla shares didn't do anything good for those.
He can profit in more indirect ways, who knows.
@Applied-Mediocrity said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
I believe he came up short when counting the sticks
Funding secured 420.
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@boomzilla this will surely help somehow. I've not seen someone lock in a purchase price and then try to drive the market price down before. Interested to see the outcome.
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@boomzilla said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
Bluff called?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/08/elon-musk-twitter-bot-data/
They had time to scrub the naughty bits now.
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@topspin I think I'm more surprised he doesn't run adblock.
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Surprise!
Musk Scraps $44 Billion Twitter Deal Over ‘Misleading Representations’
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@dcon said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
Surprise!
Musk Scraps $44 Billion Twitter Deal Over ‘Misleading Representations’
Oh mang, here come the lawsuits.
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@Gribnit said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@dcon said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
Surprise!
Musk Scraps $44 Billion Twitter Deal Over ‘Misleading Representations’
Oh mang, here come the lawsuits.
In the article, it does note the terms may require he pay a $1B penalty. So, yes, as usual the lawyers are the winners.
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@dcon said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@Gribnit said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@dcon said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
Surprise!
Musk Scraps $44 Billion Twitter Deal Over ‘Misleading Representations’
Oh mang, here come the lawsuits.
In the article, it does note the terms may require he pay a $1B penalty. So, yes, as usual the lawyers are the winners.
$1 for everyone who called it!
Also, what a cop out. He’s one of the idiots actually using twitter, so he should be well aware of its actual user base.
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I wonder if that whole thing was just a way for him to make a point.
But then, that's a crazily expensive way of making a point.
But then, it's Elon Musk we're talking about, so...
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@Zerosquare but what point is he actually making, if that was the point?
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@Arantor said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@Zerosquare but what point is he actually making, if that was the point?
That it's bots all the way down? Maybe? Dunno.
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@Benjamin-Hall said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@Arantor said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@Zerosquare but what point is he actually making, if that was the point?
That it's bots all the way down? Maybe? Dunno.
H'mm... "Elon Musk", rotating vowels pentagramatically, comes out to "elan mask".
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I think it's a generic "See? I was right! Current Twitter is Bad™!". It would be completely petty, but not out of character for him when you consider some of the stuff he's done in the past.
Another possibility is that it's some kind of market manipulation scheme.
Maybe it's both.
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@Zerosquare said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
I wonder if that whole thing was just a way for him to make a point.
But then, that's a crazily expensive way of making a point.
I don't give half a shit about Twitter but I decided to look up their financials, just for laughs.
Last year Twitter had a negative cash flow and lost $400 Million. Now, a lot of that is standard accounting bullshit used to reduce income so that they pay less taxes. If you ignore that, it looks like they actually made about $2 Billion. Which is a decent amount of money.
So Elon Musk is going to pay $44 Billion to buy a company, and at $2 Billion a year it will take 22 years to get back the $44 Billion. And that's assuming there is zero interest involved. Also, Twitter already has more than $7 Billion in long term debt.
This seems extremely stupid and retarded.
I suspect that he has finally figured this out and is back-pedalling furiously, with several armies of lawyers and accountants working around the clock looking for loopholes to get out of the deal.
And then there is The Real What The Fuck©. If everything worked out perfectly and he successfully bought Twitter ... then what? He spent 44 metric shit-tons of money and what is the benefit to ... anyone?
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@Gern_Blaanston
His stated goal was to bring more openness to the platform’s moderation and to resolve what is perceived as a political lean of said moderation. To make sure that Twitter, as the digital public square, has free speech and open access rights maintained for everyone regardless of their point of view.
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@izzion Yeah, well, his "stated goal" is bullshit.
Nobody has every had a problem on Twitter because of their "point of view". That's just an excuse that really means "Twitter won't let me post lies and bullshit".
More importantly, Twitter has the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. A right that they have because of cases taken all the way to the Supreme Court, ironically, by the same people who are now crying about Twitter's "censorship".
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@Gern_Blaanston said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@izzion Yeah, well, his "stated goal" is bullshit.
Nobody has every had a problem on Twitter because of their "point of view". That's just an excuse that really means "Twitter won't let me post lies and bullshit".
Welcome to WTDWTF.
We've got a rule on this website about where we try to keep political discussions, like about whether Twitter is actually censoring Conservatives, in the area on the website where we talk about politics. It's called the Garage. You can join it here.
Some people want to read the website without people taking this kind of shitty digs at people. We try to be courteous to them.
Everything you're saying about censorship in this paragraph is wrong. Please join us in the Garage version of this topic to learn more.
More importantly, Twitter has the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. A right that they have because of cases taken all the way to the Supreme Court, ironically, by the same people who are now crying about Twitter's "censorship".
Huh? Elon Musk's stated purpose for buying Twitter is so that he can set the censorship policy because he's unhappy with who it's censoring right now. If he buys it (which he probably will, just at a discount), then he'll be the one who gets to set the censorship policy.
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@Zerosquare said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
Another possibility is that it's some kind of market manipulation scheme.
Ding ding ding
@GuyWhoKilledBear said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
If he buys it (which he probably will, just at a discount)
He won't. He doesn't, and never had, either money or will to do so.
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@Gribnit said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@dcon said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
Surprise!
Musk Scraps $44 Billion Twitter Deal Over ‘Misleading Representations’
Oh mang, here come the lawsuits.
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@Zerosquare said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
I wonder if that whole thing was just a way for him to make a point.
Nah, doubt it.
Musk has more money than common sense. If I had to guess, it was an impulse purchase, egged on by various voices on the interwebs for a variety of reasons amplified by all the people saying that he won't do it. The day after, Twitter probably already looked a lot less shiny. Combined with all the other stuff that's come out since, buyer's regret probably kicked in overtime.
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@cvi makes you wonder if someone with Galaxy Ego ever thinks “damn, that was a stupid idea”.
Still not discounting malicious intent though.
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@MrL said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@GuyWhoKilledBear said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
If he buys it (which he probably will, just at a discount)
He won't. He doesn't, and never had, either money or will to do so.
I guess we can argue about whether Musk had the will to buy Twitter or whether he was just trying to sabotage them.
But we know he has the money. The third parties who were going to lend Musk the money have come out publicly and said that they were going to give it to him.
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@LaoC said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@Gribnit said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
@dcon said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
Surprise!
Musk Scraps $44 Billion Twitter Deal Over ‘Misleading Representations’
Oh mang, here come the lawsuits.
Yeah, the good stuff is coming now. If he doesn’t relinquish that billion easily and twitter chases it, whatever twitter wasn’t giving up to Musk could end up on the record. It’s going to be a fantastic tire fire.
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@DogsB said in In other hostile takeover Tweets...:
If he doesn’t relinquish that billion easily
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seCRQJ3I22k
Suggests twitter may in fact ask the judge to make Musk cough up the acquisition sum.