"he also had to borrow..."

Sometimes a leveraged buyout is smarter than a cash buyout. With billionaires, their wealth isn't cash in the bank...it's property or equity or stocks, etc. So, to fund a purchase, they have to liquidate. If the value of the holding is down, it makes more sense to borrow at 4% interest or something and wait for the value to recover and then pay off the loan.

That's what private equity firms do...they fund LARGE transactions. To wit, Allen & Company. No, you won't find a website about them but you might have heard of their Sun Valley Conference. That's where the B club gathers each year to put deals together. They place debt to the tune of hundreds of millions and billions like we might spend $$ at the grocery store.

Elon Musk:

"Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users"

"Still committed to acquisition"


https://twitter.com/elonmusk/s...re-market-trading%2F

The social media company had 229 million users who were served advertising in the first quarter.

quote:

Originally posted by PGT:
"he also had to borrow..."

Sometimes a leveraged buyout is smarter than a cash buyout.

OPM. Other People's Money. Debt capital is always cheaper than equity capital. If you're going to make money off something, your returns are amplified by using OPM. If you're going to lose money off something and not be personally liable for any debt, OPM is being better as it minimizes your risk and leaves the lenders hanging.

Elon will no doubt use this increased pressure and accurate estimates of bogus accounts to pull down on the offer price to something more in line with overall market decrease since his initial offer. He's more wiley than a coyote....

I think at one point Twitter was reporting that 8.5% of users were bots but quite frankly, I think it's in the 20-50% range. It'll be interesting to see if past & present twitter advertiser start filing fraud suits against twitter.

So very good. My question is how the disitnction will be made, between real and fake/bot accounts.

I love the Senator calling Scary Poppins a "nut and a weirdo".

Elon Musk:

Very important to fix your Twitter feed:

1. Tap home button.
2. Tap stars on upper right of screen.
3. Select “Latest tweets”.

You are being manipulated by the algorithm in ways you don’t realize.

Easy to switch back & forth to see the difference.

(This message brought to you by the Illuminaughty)

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/s.../1525614005045313536

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Musk plans to fire about a thousand of Twitter's 7500 employees (all the "woke" assholes, I presume) but then, plans to swell the number to about 11,000 employees, with an eye towards savvy tech people.

All the purple hair, nose ring crowd better get their resumes together. They have perhaps six months left at Twitter.

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="540" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_HYFrtwT9mc" title="YouTube video player" width="960"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

Good point. I don't know any software engineers, and never have, with purple hair and nose rings. After he fires all the twits, he will have no problem finding good software and systems people since he will probably by paying top dollar for top talent, and top talent people already have a serious work ethic. Serious people with serious talent and exceptional work ethics aren't interested in things that aren't real or useful like deceitful software, trashing other human beings, and purple hair and nose rings. If I was a younger I would have loved to work at Twitter with him at the helm. Working for high performance companies like Twitter is very fulfilling for professionals making things happen. I worked at Oracle Corp for several years as a software engineer, there were some exceptionally talented productive people in that company, and Twitter probably is, or soon will be, a place like that. Prospects are good for Mr. Musk and anyone competing for slots in that organization. Who wouldn't want to work for a man that boosts people into orbit and makes the best electric cars in the world. Oh yea, stupid people don't want to work there, all is well.

So far the results are good for America, and highly revealing to stockholders. The price went down precisely over issues like inflated member numbers, which means when you charge for the amount of exposure and a significant amount isn't real humans, those paying the rates get belligerant over being suckered - they're now complaining about the fees being a scam.

Twitter wasn't making money, either. How that was sliding by is still a curiousity, but speculators seem to work with it to keep the stock price up. "Silicone Valley" seems to drag the suckers in to this day.

Much less the Board positions and a certain counselor hauling down massive payouts for their participation - and now that's exposed for stockholders to see. The small investors are now ganging up with these kinds of numbers not being out in the open and up front.

With up to 50% of the "suscribers" being bot farm accounts as estimated by industry professionals the idea that Twitter was influential and a reflection of American thought has been exposed - nope, it's an echo chamber for controlled reposts and AI making comments on other AI accounts which synergize inflated followings. It looks all fine and dandy up front but when you take out the fakes then see accounts restabilize at a more realistic level then it creates another shock to the participants.

All said and done Musk might be giving lip service to his acquisition but the final price isn't settled yet. He's shown how much the whole thing wasn't prime turf, just sleight of hand and actually potentially illegally promoted swamp land for a Brooklyn Bridge price. Politically it's now exposed as a manipulated ministry of truth and it's revelation has even pushed this administration into making their own which they control, not the marketplace of commerce. And that can trigger a 1 billion dollar penalty fee for misrepresentation on Twitters part. Musk is substantiating it as discovery goes along, worst case there is no acquisition due to documented false pretenses on Twitters part.

And that could lead to a legal investigation over fraudulent practices.

I don't know details of this, but a cool launch of SpaceX Falcon 9

video at link

https://twitter.com/i/status/1525236601063739392


more detail on Falcon 9:

https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-9/

Falcon 9 is a reusable , two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. Falcon 9 is the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket. Reusability allows SpaceX to refly the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn drives down the cost of space access.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

SpaceX Launches Two Falcon 9 Rockets With 53 Starlink Satellites Each In A Single Day

The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Saturday at 2:10 am IST from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The rocket's first stage returned to Earth and landed at sea on the SpaceX droneship 'Just Read the Instructions' about 8.5 minutes after liftoff.

The deployment of all 53 satellites was completed less than an hour after launch.

The May 14 launch was the second Starlink mission in many days for SpaceX. Another Falcon 9 had launched 53 of the broadband spacecraft on May 13 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and also aced its touchdown on a droneship off Baja California.

https://www.republicworld.com/...day-articleshow.html

I’m more interested in this number than I am any UFO hearings…

Elon Musk: Twitter deal 'can't move forward' until company proves spam numbers

LONDON - Tesla CEO Elon Musk says his deal to buy Twitter can't move forward unless the company shows public proof that less than 5% of the accounts on the social media platform are fake or spam

Chuckle. Musk has Biden figured:

* Elon Musk said the US could resemble Venezuela if it keeps printing money 
* He said Joe Biden is not getting anything done compared to Donald Trump
* The Tesla CEO accused the administration of being 'captured by the unions' 
* Musk then said the 'The real president is whoever controls the teleprompter'
* He referenced Will Ferrell's Anchorman character Ron Burgundy who read verbatim what was written on his teleprompter 
* 'I do feel like if somebody were to accidentally lean on the teleprompter, it's going to be like Anchorman,' he said 

Elon Musk takes a swipe at Joe Biden
https://mol.im/a/10824577

What is the penalty to Twatter for Fudging their SEC filings re: bots%?

If it’s some order of magnitude greater than 5%… Isn’t that fraud/scam?

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
What is the penalty to Twatter for Fudging their SEC filings re: bots%?

If it’s some order of magnitude greater than 5%… Isn’t that fraud/scam?

I had read something about a 1 billion dollar penalty? Or is that something else?

I think Musk is wily as hell and he's going to get Twitter AND at a lower price AND all these woke fraudsters like this CEO will be out on their asses.

You don't get to where he is at this point in life by being naïve or stupid about these things.

Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough…

What is the penalty to Twitter for lying in their SEC filings? Seems to me they broke a federal law or two.

Elon Musk's Twitter Detractors Were Subsidized With Millions In Taxpayer Dollars

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Authored by Adam Andrzejewski via 'OpenTheBooks' Substack,

Mr. Musk asked "who funds them?" We answered... and, in part, it's you.

Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion has 26 activist and progressive policy organizations urging the platform’s advertisers to demand that Musk do as they say or face an advertising boycott.

But some of these groups have benefited from our tax dollars while critics say they try to limit free speech and control the flow of information on Twitter.
Big number

Those 26 organizations penned a letter at the beginning of May when they heard the Tesla Motors CEO was buying the social media company that banned then-President Donald Trump.

They urged Twitter’s advertisers to push back against Musk’s plans to reverse Trump’s ban, among other things.

In recent years, those activist organizations collectively received about $10.5 million in federal funds – mostly pandemic aid in FY2020.

They’ll happily take public dollars while they work to weaken the public square, critics say.
Key background

The news of Elon Musk buying Twitter set progressive groups, politicians and even journalists into a frenzy, fearful that his crusade to protect free speech would mean giving a platform to people they seek to silence.

The groups called Musk’s takeover “a direct threat to public safety” in urging advertisers to uphold Twitter’s current content policies. Critics say these policies ban or penalize mostly users with a center-right perspective or investigations of the left.

For example, Twitter suspended the New York Post’s account when the newspaper reported on Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Musk called Twitter’s Post suspension “obviously incredibly inappropriate” and said he also planned to reverse the Trump ban.

It’s that attitude toward censorship that has progressives in a tizzy.

“Musk intends to steamroll those safeguards and provide a megaphone to extremists who traffic in disinformation, hate, and harassment,” the letter states. “Under the guise of ‘free speech,’ his vision will silence and endanger marginalized communities, and tear at the fraying fabric of democracy.”
Key findings

So who are these organizations and who funds them?

That’s a question that Musk asked in a tweet — “Who funds these organizations that want to control your access to information? Let’s investigate …”

The Daily Mail wrote an article that answered it: some are non-government organizations (NGOs) founded by former staffers of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, others are funded by George Soros's Open Society Foundation, wealthy Democrat donors and their family foundations, labor unions and the governments of European nations.

Musk also tweeted “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

We agree, so OpenTheBooks.com got to work.

We searched federal spending to find that nine of the 26 organizations collected about $10.5 million in federal funds over the past few years.

Black Lives Matter was one of them, receiving $19,000 in grants from the Small Business Administration in 2020 and $11,300 in forgivable SBA loans in 2020. However, the organization was collecting these funds at the same time that some of their leaders were encouraging protests that looted small businesses.

The other organizations that received federal funding are:

Friends of the Earth - $1.2 million grant in 2020

GLAAD - $7,650 grants in 2019 and 2020 and $2 million in forgivable loans from the SBA in 2020 and 2021

Media Matters for America - $1.1 million forgivable SBA loan in 2020

MediaJustice (formerly Center for Media Justice) - $210,255 forgivable SBA loan in 2020

NARAL Pro-Choice America - $936,350 forgivable SBA loan in 2020

National Hispanic Media Coalition - $194,789 in two forgivable SBA loans in 2020 and 2021

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice - $195,722 in three forgivable SBA loans in 2020 and 2021

Union of Concerned Scientists - $4.5 million in a forgivable SBA loan in 2020

Crucial quote

In their letter to advertisers, these organizations claim, “Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter will further toxify our information ecosystem.”

What’s toxic is “an assortment of dark money groups,” as The Daily Mail described them, insisting that advertisers boycott Musk’s more free and open Twitter.

“Your ad dollars can either fund Musk's vanity project or hold him to account,” the letter states. “We call on you to demand Musk uphold these basic standards of community trust and safety, and to pull your advertising spending from Twitter if they are not.”

* * *

https://www.zerohedge.com/mark...ons-taxpayer-dollars

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough…

What is the penalty to Twitter for lying in their SEC filings? Seems to me they broke a federal law or two.

I’d imagine that like many laws there is a range of penalties. My guess is that much depends on how egregious the folks deciding the fine think the violations were.

The one billion* is if Musk walks out of the deal but I'm pretty sure he's going to win whatever the outcome.

*you can see all the anti-freedom advocates chortling over this as if Musk is somehow not going to get anything from this deal...bunch of short-sighted morons.

1. If the percentage of Twitter bots are proved to be higher than reported by the company, you'll probably be seeing both advertiser & shareholder lawsuits and a lower stock price.

2. Regarding the SEC, I wouldn't count on them to do what's right and fully investigate Twitter.

3. Musk will be able to buy even more of Twitter at a significant discount; Price is down over 30% from when Musk put in his offer.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough…

What is the penalty to Twitter for lying in their SEC filings? Seems to me they broke a federal law or two.

I’d imagine that like many laws there is a range of penalties. My guess is that much depends on how egregious the folks deciding the fine think the violations were.

M$FT had DOJ w/ a permanent office in Redmond for 25 years.

Similar scrutiny needs to be applied to the Twatter.

Project Veritas - right on target again: