Elon Musk was forced to take over Twitter after he feared his transgender daughter had contracted an «awakening mind virus» incubating social media platform.
Musk was initially quick to accept the news when Jenna, officially known as Xavier, moved to another position at the age of 16.
But when she later kicked him out of of his life, he realized that he was facing a struggle, a battle that would eventually end with the richest man in the world buying Twitter for $44 billion.
Tesla's owner believed. his child was radically changed by the $50,092 (£39,500) a year liberal school she attended in California.
“She went beyond socialism, becoming a complete communist and thinking that anyone rich is evil,” Mr. Musk said.
Musk initially embraced his transgender daughter Jenna, but became disillusioned with her liberal arts background. Photo: Splash News
In an interview with Walter Isaacson for his upcoming biography, Elon Musk, the Space X billionaire, said he believes the same mentality has taken over Twitter.
He believed he was infected with a mindset that repressed the right. and voices against the establishment. His decision was to buy it.
“Unless the virus of the awakened mind, which is fundamentally anti-science, anti-dignity and anti-human in general, is not stopped, civilization will never become multi-planetary,” Musk told Isaacson.
After buying Twitter, Musk's eccentric and unpredictable leadership led to him quickly reactivating previously banned accounts of right-wing agitators including Donald Trump and Kanye West.
And now, an excerpt from his forthcoming book, published this week in The Wall Street Journal, provides a surprising insight into how the deal unfolded, shedding light on how random texts and video games played a role in the drama.
Over 20 years ago, Musk launched X.com, which he envisioned as «the app for everything.»
When the company merged with Confinity to create what would become PayPal, Musk pushed for the service to be made available to everyone. be called X.com. His peers were hesitant, thinking it looked like squalid adult service, and insisted on an alternative. Mr. Musk lost.
Speaking recently, Mr. Musk said, “If you just want to be a niche player, PayPal is the best name. But if you want to take over the global financial system, then X is the best name.» best name».
With $10 billion in cash from expiring Tesla shares in his pocket, Musk asked the «easy question» about what kind of product he likes. “It was Twitter,” he said.
In January 2022, he told his personal business manager, Jared Birchall, to start buying shares.
Despite his business, Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink, outperforming its competitors and skyrocketing in price, Mr. Musk in April 2022 was still unsatisfied.
Siobhan Zilis, director of Neuralink, Musk's artificial intelligence firm and mother of his twins, told him: «You don't have to be at war all the time. Or do you feel more comfortable when you're at war?»
Mr Musk said his «default settings» include a constant desire to «put my chips back on the table or move to the next level «.
He said in April: «Twitter can become what X.com was meant to be, and in the process we can help save free speech.»
Musk called Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and on March 31, 2022, they met for dinner with Chairman Bret Taylor. Musk was invited to join the board of directors, and he accepted.
The tech billionaire described Mr. Agrawal. as a «really nice guy», but said that Twitter «needs a fire-breathing dragon».
Musk had an issue number with Parag Agrawal, then CEO of Twitter. Photo: REUTERS
But on April 6, he told fellow PayPal founders Luke Nosek and Ken Howry at the Tesla plant in Austin, Texas, that his involvement was a «recipe for trouble,» adding, «It's clear the orphanage is run by inmates.»
He argued that it would be good for democracy, but Mr Howey wondered if it should «be like a telephone system where words coming in at one end sound exactly the same at the other end.» ?”
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«Or do you think it's more like a system that governs the world's discourse and maybe some intelligence should be put into the algorithm that prioritizes and prioritizes?»
Mr Musk suggested charge people to get verified to eliminate bots, get cash and help turn it into a payment platform — bringing to life his «original vision» of X.com.
Mr. Musk flew to the Hawaiian island of billionaire Larry Ellison, Lanai, where he spent four days contemplating what to do with Twitter.
The tech billionaire spent four days in seclusion on the private island of Lanai. Credit: Moment RF
It was here at 3:32 am local time that he posted a hostile tweet asking «is the platform dying?».
Mr. Agrawal texted Musk 90 minutes later saying, «Can you tweet, 'Twitter is dying?' or anything else about Twitter, but I have to tell you that it doesn't help me create Twitter. better in the current context.”
At 5 a.m. local time, Musk struck back, replying, “What did you do this week?” and then adding, “I'm not joining the board of directors. It's a waste of time. I'll make a proposal to make Twitter private.»
Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Taylor, chairman of the board, asked to speak, with the latter saying, «Do you have five minutes so I can get the gist of the context?»< /p>
Mr Musk said: “Fixing Twitter with a chat with Parag will not work. Decisive action is needed.”
He later said he realized, “I didn’t want to be co-opted and I was kind of a quisling on the board.”
At that point, Musk didn’t abandoned the idea of creating a new social media company, an idea that he discussed with his brother Kimbal.
“I think a new social media company based on blockchain and including payments is needed” — he wrote to him. .
A few hours later, he changed his mind and was going to buy the company right away. He wrote to Mr. Birchall: «It is impossible to fix the company's position as a 9% shareholder.»
Musk then flew to Vancouver to meet his girlfriend Claire Bowsher, a performance artist known as Grimes.
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Mr. Musk with his then-girlfriend Grimes Photo: Getty
The purpose of the trip was to introduce their son X to her parents. But Musk was focused on the Twitter deal, so she went on the trip herself.
Back at the hotel, Musk texted Taylor his decision: «I've decided to make Twitter private.» The mogul relaxed by playing a video game until 5:30 a.m., then tweeted, “I made an offer.”
Musk then set about looking for investors to fund the deal.
His brother Kimbal refused, but billionaire Larry Ellison was more accommodating, having already declared his interest.
He was willing to invest a billion, or whatever Mr. Musk decided, on Twitter, which he hadn't used in ten years. The Tesla mogul even had to reset Ellison's password.
Sam Bankman-Fried, who was later indicted after the crash of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange but denies being guilty, was also interested. Mr. Musk showed little enthusiasm.
Undeterred, Mr. Bankman-Fried wrote to Mr. Musk, saying he was «really excited about what you'll be doing with TWTR.» He was willing to turn the $100 million worth of shares he already owned on Twitter into a stake in the new company once it went private.
«Sorry, who's sending this message?» Mr. Musk answered.
And again, without fear, Bankman-Freed called Musk. The 30-minute conversation didn't go well.
«My bull detector went off like a red alarm on a Geiger counter,» Musk recalls.
“He talked like he was driving at speed, or on Adderall, a mile a minute. I thought, «Dude, calm down.»
Mr. Bankman-Fried was equally unimpressed, thinking that Mr. Musk was «crazy.»
by either Mr. Bankman-Freed. investing in the company, and not even converting his existing shares into a stake in the new venture.
Initial euphoria
Musk raised the money, and in late April, his plans were approved by the Twitter board.
At first, the tech mogul was euphoric. “I am thrilled to finally bring X.com to life the way it was meant to be, using Twitter as a catalyst!” He wrote.
After a few days, doubts appeared.
“I will have to live in Twitter headquarters. This is a tough situation. It makes me very upset,” he told Walter Isaacson.
Musk’s growing belief that Twitter was lying about the number of its users was reinforced by the whistleblower and others.
He was convinced the $44 billion offer was too high and was on the phone with his lawyers throughout September when Twitter went to court trying to get Musk to comply with the offer.
“They chat about fire in the dumpster they ended up in,” he said of the Twitter board of directors. «I can't believe a judge would push the deal.»
But Musk's lawyers saw the situation differently, warning him that he would lose if the case went to trial.
“Maybe I should just pay the full price because these people who run Twitter are so dumb and idiotic,” Musk said.
“The potential is huge. There are so many things I could fix.» The deal was closed in October.
Unimpressed by the visit to the office
A few days before the completion of formalities, Musk visited the 10-story Art Deco Twitter building in San Francisco.
There was a cafe, a yoga studio and a games room. Signs in the staff restrooms read, «Gender Diversity Welcomes Here,» and closets were crammed with «Don't Sleep» T-shirts. Employees could work from home and were given a “mental rest day” every month.
Mask was unimpressed by this.
He preferred the buzzword “hardcore.”
According to the agreement, Mr. Agrawal and top Twitter executives were entitled to a severance pay and the right to an option on their shares. Mr. Musk was unhappy, believing they had misled him during the negotiation of the deal.
He offered to push back the agreement for a few hours, giving him the opportunity to fire them before they could cash out the shares. options.
The trade was closed at 16.12 PT. At the same time, Musk's aide delivered letters of resignation to Agrawal and three of his deputies. Six minutes later, Chief Security Officer Musk appeared in the conference room to inform them that their email had been disabled and to escort them out of the building.
Mr. Agrawal tried to resign.
«But we beat him,» Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, said.
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