Well it didn’t take long to get the next chess move in the Musk/Twitter saga. Twitter’s board of directors opted for the “poison pill” approach. This essentially gives shareholders the right to buy new shares of Twitter stock at half market value if Musk tries a hostile takeover in the open market. The new shares would represent shareholder dilution and make it more expensive for a hostile bidder to own the company outright. Bold move, Cotton. We’ll see if it pays off. My quick two cents: this is a really good way to alienate shareholders who actually want Musk’s buyout offer. I am very happy I’m watching this from the sidelines. The BOD doesn't appear to be acting in the interest of shareholders. This also sets up what I described in the article; Berenson's litigation is even more interesting now.
"There is no business model, even with paying subscribers, for Twitter to exist. As the business grows, the costs increase, and the costs to subscribers would grow. So, what is going on?
The only way Twitter, with 217 million users, could exist as a viable platform is if they had access to tech systems of incredible scale and performance, and those systems were essentially free or very cheap. The only entity that could possibly provide that level of capacity and scale is the United States Government – combined with a bottomless bank account.
If my hunch is correct, Elon Musk is poised to expose the well-kept secret that most social media platforms are operating on U.S. government tech infrastructure and indirect subsidy. Let that sink in."
Wild article. Love it. If all of that is accurate, the best way to battle Twitter (and gov) economically is to for everyone to create a spam account and follow as many people as possible through those spam accounts. Probably want to utilize a VPN for such a server squeeze attack. lol
Great article! I went to Parler when I left Twitter, but then it shut down so I discovered gab. I really like gab, though there are occasional anti-Semitic and anti-gay comments. I just block those people like I do in real life. Gab has groups like Cats, Gardening, Fasting, Etc. I like the Vaccine Injuries and Deaths group where there is a lot of discussion of vax etc mandates. I think some of my favorite people are not on gab due to the anti-Semitic reputation, but it’s very rare.
But right now, I’m getting most of my content from Substack.
Glad you liked it. And good insight on Gab. I appreciate it. There are other readers here who have recommended it as well. It sounds a bit like Minds just with more users. When I tried out Minds I noticed a lot of the same nastiness. At that time I opted for more of a "I just don't need this at all" approach. I'm very pleased with Substack though. Between this publication that I'm growing here and the Seeking Alpha stuff, I'm very happy with the community engagement! Everyone is very respectful even when I know there are probably disagreements in philosophy. But I love the convos! I don't see much of a need for too much else right now, tbh.
I hated the mean people on Twitter. Gab is much more kind, maybe because it’s mostly people of the same thinking (conservative, Christian). Yes, I’m open to other voices but the Twitterers were so mean about it.
I like having different groups where I can escape hard news and just have fun, like Cats and Gardening.
Twitter is brutal for political discussion and I noticed it getting particularly bad even before the 2016 election. Around the time I realized I leaned libertarian I stopped engaging with most of it (not all of it) because it seemed largely pointless. My Twitter experience from that point through Jan 2021 (when I deleted) was almost entirely sports and finance. It was a lot more fun. Much better memes too. Less mean-spirited.
I think people have really forgotten how fun the internet used to be before social media destroyed it. My intro was message boards. Just talking about music with people who liked what I liked. A much simpler time. I feel bad for the zoomers. They don't know anything but constant connectivity and digital over physical interaction. I'm actually a millenial but I'm just old enough to remember what life was like before everyone had cellphones before puberty. I hope the pendulum swings back a little more toward reality though. As Dave Chappelle said, "Twitters not a real place."
I’m 65 so I definitely recall a simpler time. We kids would be out playing in the woods as it got dark and my mom would ring a big bell to call us in for dinner!
Well it didn’t take long to get the next chess move in the Musk/Twitter saga. Twitter’s board of directors opted for the “poison pill” approach. This essentially gives shareholders the right to buy new shares of Twitter stock at half market value if Musk tries a hostile takeover in the open market. The new shares would represent shareholder dilution and make it more expensive for a hostile bidder to own the company outright. Bold move, Cotton. We’ll see if it pays off. My quick two cents: this is a really good way to alienate shareholders who actually want Musk’s buyout offer. I am very happy I’m watching this from the sidelines. The BOD doesn't appear to be acting in the interest of shareholders. This also sets up what I described in the article; Berenson's litigation is even more interesting now.
I'd say the most likely outcome of Musk's adventure is that the Deep State takes him out:
https://twitter.com/CGasparino/status/1514560918000185347?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1514560918000185347%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2022%2F04%2F14%2Felon-musk-make-a-massive-proposal-offers-to-purchase-twitter-for-41-billion-with-plan-to-take-company-private%2F
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/04/14/elon-musk-make-a-massive-proposal-offers-to-purchase-twitter-for-41-billion-with-plan-to-take-company-private/
"There is no business model, even with paying subscribers, for Twitter to exist. As the business grows, the costs increase, and the costs to subscribers would grow. So, what is going on?
The only way Twitter, with 217 million users, could exist as a viable platform is if they had access to tech systems of incredible scale and performance, and those systems were essentially free or very cheap. The only entity that could possibly provide that level of capacity and scale is the United States Government – combined with a bottomless bank account.
If my hunch is correct, Elon Musk is poised to expose the well-kept secret that most social media platforms are operating on U.S. government tech infrastructure and indirect subsidy. Let that sink in."
Wild article. Love it. If all of that is accurate, the best way to battle Twitter (and gov) economically is to for everyone to create a spam account and follow as many people as possible through those spam accounts. Probably want to utilize a VPN for such a server squeeze attack. lol
Great article! I went to Parler when I left Twitter, but then it shut down so I discovered gab. I really like gab, though there are occasional anti-Semitic and anti-gay comments. I just block those people like I do in real life. Gab has groups like Cats, Gardening, Fasting, Etc. I like the Vaccine Injuries and Deaths group where there is a lot of discussion of vax etc mandates. I think some of my favorite people are not on gab due to the anti-Semitic reputation, but it’s very rare.
But right now, I’m getting most of my content from Substack.
Glad you liked it. And good insight on Gab. I appreciate it. There are other readers here who have recommended it as well. It sounds a bit like Minds just with more users. When I tried out Minds I noticed a lot of the same nastiness. At that time I opted for more of a "I just don't need this at all" approach. I'm very pleased with Substack though. Between this publication that I'm growing here and the Seeking Alpha stuff, I'm very happy with the community engagement! Everyone is very respectful even when I know there are probably disagreements in philosophy. But I love the convos! I don't see much of a need for too much else right now, tbh.
I hated the mean people on Twitter. Gab is much more kind, maybe because it’s mostly people of the same thinking (conservative, Christian). Yes, I’m open to other voices but the Twitterers were so mean about it.
I like having different groups where I can escape hard news and just have fun, like Cats and Gardening.
Twitter is brutal for political discussion and I noticed it getting particularly bad even before the 2016 election. Around the time I realized I leaned libertarian I stopped engaging with most of it (not all of it) because it seemed largely pointless. My Twitter experience from that point through Jan 2021 (when I deleted) was almost entirely sports and finance. It was a lot more fun. Much better memes too. Less mean-spirited.
I think people have really forgotten how fun the internet used to be before social media destroyed it. My intro was message boards. Just talking about music with people who liked what I liked. A much simpler time. I feel bad for the zoomers. They don't know anything but constant connectivity and digital over physical interaction. I'm actually a millenial but I'm just old enough to remember what life was like before everyone had cellphones before puberty. I hope the pendulum swings back a little more toward reality though. As Dave Chappelle said, "Twitters not a real place."
I’m 65 so I definitely recall a simpler time. We kids would be out playing in the woods as it got dark and my mom would ring a big bell to call us in for dinner!