Tweety Bird and The Richest Man

It has been an ongoing saga and one followed by tweeters, investors, social media gurus, business operators, entrepreneurs, and the media alike. When Elon Musk first ‘tweeted’ yes, pun intended, that he was buying a 9% stake in the social media platform just earlier this year, some insiders and astute social media and finance brains anticipated that there was more to come. When the argument arose that Musk criticised Twitter for rigidly limiting free speech on its social platform, it was only a matter of time before the richest man would make an offer. His reasoning  – that to ensure free speech would require taking Twitter private left only one choice – to buy it outright. And, while there was speculation and a to-and-fro of sorts between the board, to which Musk was invited as the largest shareholder, but refused to take a seat, it was really just a matter of time for Musk to raise his mighty financial power to get his way. The offer he made, tactically so, in his words – went straight to the end.  Musk’s offer of $54.20 per share, with a supposed 420 reference to pot in the figure, was deemed satisfactory and would leave shareholders happy. Many held their breath as – for a moment or two – it looked like the board, shareholders, and decision-makers were going to hold out and play hardball. Then the announcement came through that the sought-after social platform would be sold to Elon Musk. The big question on everyone’s mind now is – will this be a good thing or not, and for whom? Will the people working at Twitter embrace their new boss or revolt into a mass exodus? Will Twitter users boycott the platform as we have seen with Facebook where hordes of users are leaving on various grounds and especially lately in response to Meta transitioning to virtuality?  Those out there who believe in free speech and trust that Musk has bought tweety bird to ensure free social media speech – it’s a good thing and users might actually multiply. In times of more and more misuse of personal information, infringement of free speech, fake news, and criticised censorship on social media, Twitter may well become the safe haven for free speech if we can trust the true intention of Elon Musk. Now that the Twitter board has agreed, it is up to shareholders to give the nod, then regulators in the US and other countries in order for the deal to go through. With these remaining hurdles yet to be jumped, users might yet have to wait for the possible changes earmarked by Musk such as free speech, an open-source algorithm, account verification, and edit buttons. We will see as the saga of Tweety Bird and The Richest Man unfolds when he takes ownership of the social platform, said to complete later this year. No doubt we are witnessing history in the making…