Hostile Takeovers and Poison Pills: The Week Elon Musk Came for Twitter
CYBER
VICE
4 • 645 Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elon Musk’s attempts to buy Twitter have sent ripples through the social media platform. There is a story here about panic, the limited reach of social media, and the increasingly fuzzy nature of the private/ public space … but I think all that is a surface level analysis. For me, the more interesting story is the corporate what lies just underneath.
You see, Musk is the richest man not because he invented anything wonderful and world changing. No, he’s rich because he’s good at making money. He’s a businessman first and foremost. Through that lens, the story of the Twitter acquisition becomes one of shitposts and SEC filings, a bizarre fight between tech titans, a rehashing of old corporate techniques like “poison pills” and “hostile takeovers.”
On this episode of Cyber, we sit down with Motherboard features writer and editor Maxwell Strachan. He’s here to answer all your burning questions about Musk’s attempted Twitter takeover.
Stories discussed in this episode:
Twitter Loses Elon Musk the Board Member, Regains Elon Musk the Shitposter
Twitter and Elon Musk Are Now at War
We Spoke to an Old-School Corporate Raider About Elon Musk and Twitter
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Tadmin, it's got the code it's going to launch. |
| 0:10.4 | It's a unit system. |
| 0:12.7 | I know this. |
| 0:14.7 | It's how all the files of the park. |
| 0:16.9 | It tells her everything. |
| 0:18.7 | Sir, he's uploading the virus. |
| 0:21.4 | Eagle One. The package is being delivered. |
| 0:24.0 | Hello out there on the internet. |
| 0:25.7 | I'm Matthew Galt. |
| 0:26.9 | This is Cyber. |
| 0:28.1 | Gus the Cat is standing by trying to put his head through my ringlight. |
| 0:31.9 | So if you see some strange shadows on stream, that's what that's about. |
| 0:35.1 | But we're here today to talk about Elon Musk. |
| 0:37.3 | Elon Musk's attempts to |
| 0:38.4 | buy Twitter, have sent ripples through the social media platform. There is a story here about |
| 0:43.0 | panic, the limited reach of social media, and the increasingly fuzzy nature of the private |
| 0:48.1 | public space. But I think all of that is surface level analysis. For me, the more interesting |
| 0:53.7 | stories about corporate machinations |
| 0:55.4 | that are just underneath the surface. You see, Musk is the richest man, not because he |
| 1:01.4 | invented anything wonderful, world-changing. No, he's rich because he's very, very good at making |
| 1:07.2 | money. He's a businessman first and foremost. And through that lens, the story of |
| 1:12.6 | the Twitter acquisition becomes one of shitposts and SEC filings, a bizarre fight between tech |
... |
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