The $44 billion Twitter acquisition was first announced one year ago today. Here’s a retrospective of the ongoing saga involving Elon Musk and the San Francisco-based social media platform.
What Happened: Musk confirmed on April 14, 2022 an offer to purchase all the Twitter shares he did not already own for $54.20 each.
At the time, it was revealed in a regulatory filing that Musk had been accumulating Twitter shares, a 9.2% stake, since January 2022. He had even declined to join the Twitter board of directors.
Walking Away and Lawsuit: By July 2022, Musk attempted to walk away from the acquisition, citing higher-than-expected spam and bot accounts.
Musk's decision prompted Twitter to file a lawsuit to force the $44 billion takeover deal to go through. Among the highlights of the lawsuit were the wording of how poop emojis and Chuck Norris memes played into the court case.
See Also: M&A Expert Julian Klymochko Says This Was 'The Dagger' To Elon Musk's Case Against Twitter
“In April, Elon Musk entered into a binding merger agreement with Twitter, promising to use his best efforts to get the deal done. Now, less than three months later, Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interest,” the lawsuit read.
Released Texts: The lawsuit led to Musk's text messages being released. The Tesla Inc TSLA CEO had chatted with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal; FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was interested in helping to fund the deal; Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey; and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, who threw his hat into the ring to be the next Twitter CEO.
Tesla Shares Suffer: In 2022, Tesla saw shares suffer their biggest decline since going public in 2010. While this came from several factors including high inflation and macroeconomic concerns, some analysts and experts pointed often to the Twitter overhang over Tesla shares.
The Twitter overhang came in reference to Musk selling shares of Tesla several times in 2022 in a move to help finance the acquisition of the social media platform.
“We continue to believe Twitter overhang depressing Tesla shares lifts once Elon closes the deal and announced he’s done selling Tesla shares,” Future Fund Managing Partner Gary Black said before the deal was completed.
Since Musk entered Twitter headquarters in October carrying a sink, signifying the closing of the deal, he made several changes to the platform.
Twitter Shares Delisted: After the acquisition, shares of Twitter were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. The stock was also removed from the S&P 500 and index funds like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust as a result. Investors who bought Twitter shares after Musk’s stake was announced enjoyed a profit on the official $54.20 payout.
New CEO: After the acquisition was completed, Agrawal was let go as CEO. He was one of several prominent employees to leave the company when Musk took over the helm.
Musk has said he will eventually resign as the CEO of Twitter and has jokingly said that his dog Floki is “now leading the platform.”
Musk’s Work Load Grows: As the CEO of three companies, many questioned if Musk would be able to handle the responsibilities. In November 2022, Musk said that he was primarily working and sleeping and that he had no choice to do this until things got under control at Twitter.
“My workload went up from about 70 to 80 hours a week to probably 120,” Musk said at the time. “Go to sleep, I wake up, work, go to sleep, work, do that 7 days a week.”
Unbanning Trump, Others: One of the moves made by Musk that has received strong attention is the unbanning of several prominent accounts that were previously found to be in violation of Twitter’s policies. Among the unbanned accounts was that of former President Donald Trump, who has not posted on the platform since the unban.
Job Cuts: Since taking over Twitter, Musk has cut employees and eliminated many positions. In a recent interview, Musk said there are around 1,500 employees at Twitter, suggesting 80% of the original employees prior to the acquisition have been let go.
Record Usage: One of the highlights for Twitter since the acquisition has been record download and usage reported by Musk. The Twitter CEO recently claimed that the platform has exceeded 8 billion user-minutes per day.
Most Followed on Twitter: Prior to the acquisition of Twitter, Musk was already one of the most followed people on the social media platform. With more eyes on Musk on the platform, he continued to gain followers throughout 2022.
On March 30, 2023, Musk became the most followed person on Twitter with 133 million followers, passing former president Barack Obama for the title.
Dogecoin Rise: Cryptocurrency Dogecoin DOGE/USD saw several spikes during the acquisition process with the belief by many that Musk would integrate his favorite cryptocurrency into the platform. Dogecoin saw one of its biggest spikes of 2023 when the Twitter logo was changed to the Dogecoin logo for a short period of time.
As the one year anniversary of the acquisition announcement by Musk passes, here’s a look at what could be the future of Twitter.
Everything App: One of Musk's goals with Twitter is to make it a so-called "everything app," which could include the integration of payments and financial services.
Musk was previously the co-founder of online bank X.com, which eventually became PayPal Holdings PYPL.
“I know how to make a way better PayPal,” Musk said in November 2022.
Musk said there is a 22-year-old plan from the X.com and PayPal days that could be executed.
In his comments about creating an everything app, Musk has often said that China has WeChat, which offers more than just a social media platform.
Twitter recently partnered with eToro in a move to allow users the ability to buy and sell stocks and crypto on the platform, which could be one of its everything app steps.
User Monetization: In a goal of keeping users on Twitter and also bringing more creators and key figures on board, Musk has increased monetization efforts for users. Twitter recently rebranded its “Super Follows” feature into “Subscriptions.” Musk said that users can now monetize texts and videos through the feature. To help with the launch, Twitter won’t charge a fee for users for the first year, bringing a bigger cut for creators than rival sites.
Blue Checkmarks: Another huge topic of debate since the acquisition of Twitter by Musk has been the blue checkmarks.
Originally reserved for prominent members of media or noteworthy individuals with large followings, Twitter Blue was launched with a cost of $8 per month for Twitter users to gain the blue checkmark and extra features.
Twitter will remove the legacy verified blue checkmarks on April 20, a move that could bring additional revenue to Twitter via monthly subscriptions.
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