Closing in on his Twitter megadeal,
Elon Musk said Thursday his goal is to
enable "healthy" debate of ideas and counter the tendency of social
media to splinter into partisan "echo chambers."
اضافة اعلان
In a message meant to reassure jittery Twitter advertisers on the eve of a
court-imposed deadline to finalize the deal, Musk said he would work with
marketers to "build something extraordinary together."
The billionaire entrepreneur pursued the $44 billion deal "because it
is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town
square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner,"
Musk tweeted.
The planned takeover has dismayed activists who fear a surge in harassment
and misinformation under the unpredictable Musk, who himself is known for
trolling other Twitter users.
But Musk said he realizes Twitter "cannot become a free-for-all
hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences."
The Tesla boss's on-again, off-again acquisition of the platform appeared to
be entering its final phase after a Delaware judge paused litigation on October
6 on Twitter's suit against Musk after he previously walked away from the deal.
Musk has reportedly been lining up financing and, while there is always the
chance of a last-minute curveball, more signs point to the deal's likely
closure.
The New York Stock Exchange posted a pending order to suspend trading in
Twitter before Friday's session.
Shares of Twitter climbed 1.1 percent to $53.96 near 1615 GMT Thursday, not
far below the $54.20 purchase price in Musk's deal.
"We expect Musk and Twitter to officially close the deal by Friday
morning with Cinderella finally getting the glass slipper that fits," said
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
- 'Chief Twit' -
Musk originally agreed to the Twitter acquisition in April, but soon pulled
back, saying in July he was canceling the contract because he was misled by
Twitter over the number of fake "bot" accounts -- allegations
rejected by the company.
Twitter in turn sought to prove Musk, who also heads aerospace firm SpaceX,
was contriving excuses to walk away simply because he changed his mind.
A trial on Twitter's suit was scheduled for mid-October, but the Delaware
court gave the parties until 5:00 pm on October 28, 2022 to close the
transaction.
Fresh questions about the deal and Twitter's future surfaced last week
following reports Musk planned deep staff cuts.
But on Wednesday, Musk changed his Twitter profile to "Chief Twit"
and posted a video of himself walking into the company's California
headquarters carrying a sink.
The South African-born entrepreneur cuts a polarizing figure in American
business.
Supporters cheer his disruptive spirit and achievements at Tesla, while
detractors criticize him as a megalomaniac with a dangerous tendency to wade
into geopolitical topics in which he lacks expertise, such as the
Russia-Ukraine conflict.
In his latest statement Thursday, Musk said much of the public speculation
about his intentions in the deal had been "wrong" as he insisted his
goals were noble.
In pursuing Twitter, "I didn't do it because it would be easy. I didn't
do it to make more money," Musk said.
"I did so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this
goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility."
Musk urged marketers to devise ads that are "as relevant as
possible" to consumers, appealing to the industry at a time when tech
giants Google and Facebook have reported big declines in advertising revenue.
"Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually
content!" he said.
Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg said Twitter's ad business has
suffered due to uncertainty surrounding the Musk deal, as well as the
macroeconomic concerns that have buffeted the broader online ad industry.
"Even slightly loosening content moderation on the platform is sure to
spook advertisers, many of whom already find Twitter's brand safety tools to be
lacking compared with other social platforms," Enberg said.
Having more relevant ads is "a noble goal, but one that is difficult to
accomplish," Enberg said.
"Musk is set to acquire Twitter at a time when data is already scarce
and users are highly skeptical of forking over more personal information to
social platforms."
Read More Lifestyle
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
