These are private exchanges, which are now accessible to everyone. In the last few hours, the Delaware Court has published a document containing hundreds of text messages between Elon Musk, some of his friends and businessmen. The transcripts begin on January 21, 2022, and shed another light on the crazy scenario of Elon Musk’s announcement of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter on April 25, and then his retraction on July 8, 2022.
The head of Tesla and SpaceX will face Twitter shareholders on October 17. The latter want to force him to buy the company as he had promised, for 44 billion dollars. Musk wants to abandon the operation, which he describes as lies by the Twitter teams about the proportion of fake accounts on the social network.
As he had publicly mentioned, freedom of expression is one of Elon Musk’s main motivations, despite a leeway that would have been limited in the case of the Twitter takeover. In the first exchanges with friends, Elon Musk returns to talk about the blockade of the state channel RT, imposed on all European operators during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I find your information quite entertaining. There is a lot of shit, but also good things”, writes Elon Musk. “Free speech is even more important when it comes to someone you hate saying something to your eyes,” he continues.
End of March: “I would like to help”
On March 24, a month before the acquisition announcement, Elon Musk received a joke from a friend: “Can you buy Twitter and make it go away?” “Maybe redeem it and make it more respectful of free speech?” Musk replicas.
Elon Musk also talks with Jack Dorsey, co-founder of the company, who abandoned ship at the end of 2021. “You need a new platform, but not a company. That’s why I left,” Jack Dorsey wrote to Elon Musk on March 26. Dorsey later campaigned for a solution that would be open sourced, ad-free, to avoid any control “by advertisers and governments.” “I’d like to help if I can,” Musk replies.
An hour later, Elon Musk is already presenting a new vision of things: “I think we have to try to get Twitter back on the right track,” Musk wants to believe. “That’s probably the best option. I have my doubts, but I remain open, ”replies Dorsey, visibly skeptical.
The next day, Elon Musk joins a conversation with various Twitter executives, starting with their new CEO, Parag Agrawal. On April 3, the latter hopes to work with Elon Musk as part of his arrival on the company’s board of directors, with the aim of improving the platform. He will make the official announcement two days later. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” exults Jack Dorsey.
Beginning of April: first tensions
For three days, multiple exchanges testify to the good relations between Musk and Twitter executives, with whom he discusses multiple ideas for technical developments. Things get tough fast when Elon Musk tweets “Is Twitter dying?” April 9th.
“You are free to tweet ‘Twitter is dying’ or anything else about Twitter, but it is my responsibility to tell you that it does not help me improve Twitter in the current context,” Parag Agrawal sends him. “I will not join the board, it’s a waste of time,” replies Musk dryly, who will carry out his threat two days later, without losing his interest in the company.
On April 9, before his takeover proposal, Elon Musk addresses the issue of fake accounts, which he will, however, mention to justify his withdrawal from the operation. He evokes the need to get Twitter out of the stock market, to act with more freedom. “Removing fake users will lead to catastrophic numbers,” he anticipates.
The many messages that follow mention the contours of the operation itself, when Elon Musk is looking for partners, but also when some of his relatives request to manage Twitter. On April 26, when the board of directors had just accepted Elon Musk’s takeover offer, Jack Dorsey sent him encouraging text messages, presenting Parag Agrawal as a good actor if he wanted to change the social network.
“He’s really good at getting things done when given a specific direction,” Dorsey said. However, no exchanges between Musk and Agrawal are subsequently reported in the document, which recounts text messages sent through June 17, 2022, a month after Elon Musk announced the suspension of the operation and three weeks before. of the announcement of its definitive cancellation.
Source: BFM TV
