Elon Musk buys Twitter: Everything you need to know – Android Authority
After lots of deliberation and conversations, Last Month Tesla CEO, Elon Musk purchased the social media platform Twitter for $44 billion dollars. In doing so he also took the platform private and ousted a handful of top executives.
The process of Musk taking over Twitter was a long and disputed journey with a month’s long legal battle. Essentially Musk had already held a 9.2% stake in the company making him the largest shareholder. He put in an offer to buy the rest of the company for $54.20 a share in cash which Twitter accepted. However, he later Tweeted that the deal was on hold because he had concerns about the number of fake accounts there are on Twitter. Twitter denied the accusation and vigorously defended the company’s ability to detect and fight spam accounts. Musk disagreed with Twitter and threatened to walk away from the agreed upon deal since he felt the company wasn’t providing enough information about the prevalence of spam and fake accounts and he didn’t believe it was worth what he was planning to pay. As a result, Twitter sued Mr. Musk over his attempt to abandon the deal in efforts to make him honored the previously agreed upon terms. During trial Musk suddenly reversed his position an unexpectedly agreed to follow through with the deal. However, once the deal closed and he took over the company he fired a multitude of high up executives including chief executive, Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal.
Musk claims he bought the app to help humanity and to better promote free speech on the platform. He tweeted a letter to advertisers saying. “I want Twitter to be a place where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.”
Musks desire to shake up Twitter has many brands as well as Advertising and Public Relations agencies wondering if continuing to promote on Twitter is a good idea. On one end, brands like the fact that Musk wants to make the platform even more tech savvy and upgrade many features and in-app tools. However, their concern for brand safety and reputation due to his desire to make the app less censored has many companies very concerned. Many are worried that the removal of censorship will spread disinformation and hate speech which will negatively impact them. In turn many brands may jump ship and turn to other platforms with more regulations in place.
Right now, it would be my recommendation that brands temporarily pause their paid advertising on Twitter and wait to see how everything shakes out. Brands should be sensitive about the content displayed on pages where their ads are showing up and more answers from Musk on his plans for regulation and brand safety will need to be answered.
Musk has put brands in a tough position as it seems any moves, they try to make will in a way force them to take a stance they weren’t intending to make. On one end stopping promotion on a platform that is wanting to promote free speech and is heavily backed by many conservatives might make brands look like they are Anti- free speech. However, continuing to support and utilize the platform when disinformation and hate speech are able to be spread might make them look like they endorse hateful content. This is why a temporary pause with no formal announcement seems to be the move many brands are making at the moment.