Twitter + Elon = Twitterverse Eruption: How The Social Media Platform's Denizens Reacted To Musk Buyout

It’s not surprising that #twittersold is the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter Inc TWTR on the afternoon of April 25.

The company accepted Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $54.20 a share, or about $44 billion. There are still regulatory hoops to jump through, as well as a shareholders' vote, but it almost seems certain Twitter will join Musk’s coterie of companies, which in addition to Tesla includes SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink and Open AI.

See Also: Takeover Secured: Elon Musk, The World's Richest Person, To Buy Twitter For $44B

Musk is well-known for using Twitter to share his musings — many times moving markets and making the world speculate what his next moves are.

Today, moving on from his brief weekend obsession with Microsoft Corporation MSFT co-founder Bill Gates’ physique and after the announcement of the deal, Musk once again advocated for free speech on the platform in his latest tweet, "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."

🚀💫� Yesss!!! �💫🚀 pic.twitter.com/0T9HzUHuh6

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal had this to say about the deal.

Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important. https://t.co/5iNTtJoEHf

— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 25, 2022

But what does the Twitterverse think of the latest in Musk-lore?

Twitter co-founder and former Jack Dorsey hasn’t tweeted anything about the announcement (yet). Maybe he paused to luxuriate in the $974 million he is supposed to earn with the buyout — a number shared by CNBC’s Robert Frank on Twitter.

Fellow CNBC pundit Jim Cramer issued two interesting tweets this afternoon. 

@elonmusk congratulations. We know you will make Twitter everything it can be!!!!

— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) April 25, 2022

Why did Twitter board say no and put the poison pill in and then change their minds? Simple: the cohort, which had tanked...

— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) April 25, 2022

Among the responses to Cramer's tweet, a few jumped out, including one from @TheDissipation, “Musk got rolled. Might take a while to figure that out.”

Another user questioned the deal too: "Twitter does $3.5 billion a year in revenue, a business roughly the size of the Olive Garden. You have to admit today is hilarious," tweeted Josh Brown, the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management.

Others are concerned about what Musk will do to Twitter operations.

Skooks, well-known in the #NOLATwitter universe, tweeted, “People keep freaking out that Elon is going to bring all the Nazis back onto the site but that’s not really what’s going to happen. He’s just going to do a lot of aggravating functionality changes that make the site less useful for everybody.”

And then there are those who are less worried about functionality issues, and where they are going to get their celebrity news or just plain swap industry gossip.

It's troubling to think that, if Elon Musk dramatically changes the way the Trending box selects stories, I may never read another headline about Zendaya's new red carpet look again.

— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) April 25, 2022

I think a lot of journalists, present company included, pretend that Twitter is important to our jobs when it's really just a garden-variety social media addiction.

— Leyland "Lee" DeVito (@leedevito) April 25, 2022

There are a few that may blame @RedLetterDave for the takeover — at least putting the idea in Musk's head — even if it was 2017.

This exchange continues to haunt me pic.twitter.com/W06oSqx0MR

— Dave Smith (@redletterdave) April 25, 2022

The conclusion? Be careful what you tweet to Musk, he just might act on it. 

Photo: Daniel Oberhaus via Flicker Creative Commons