Tag: Twitter

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Twitter board of directors issue “poison pill” maneuver to block Elon Musk’s buyout proposal

Twitter’s board of directors has issued what is frequently known as a “poison pill” maneuver to block Elon Musk’s buyout offer. This tactic blocks any such hostile takeover by stakeholders, providing a speedbump for Musk.

Following Musk’s public proposal to purchase the rights of Twitter for $43 billion, the social media platform’s board of directors has responded. The board is utilizing a new “shareholder rights plan” to seemingly fight off Musk’s bid.

The poison pill maneuver commonly enables certain shareholders the ability to purchase additional stock. This tactic often halts an outsider from seizing control of a company.

Earlier, Musk stated his proposal to purchase Twitter and take it private. In a letter to the board, Musk offered to pay $54.20 a share in cash. The Tesla CEO believes his offer was a suitable and enticing bid. Though, he notes that if his bid is not accepted, he “would need to reconsider [his] position as a shareholder.”

Musk purchased 9.2 percent of the company in March, according to an SEC filing he shared. This makes Musk the largest individual shareholder of the company. At the time, he was set to join Twitter’s board of directors before pulling out. In a public letter, Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal was unable to state why exactly Musk dropped out but did assure that it was “for the best.”

Over this entire ordeal, Musk has been outspoken about his plan in wanting to reevaluate the moderation of Twitter. Of course, that also came with other mentions that Twitter Blue subscribers should be verified and a number of other changes.

The situation between Twitter and Musk will undoubtedly continue over the weeks. We will have to see how it shakes out and hopefully, this can all be put behind us soon.

Source: AP News

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Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk offers $43 billion to take Twitter private

Elon Musk wants to take Twitter private, and he’s willing to pay $43 billion to make it happen.

On Thursday, the billionaire filed official documents with the  U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He’s offering to pay $54.20 a share in cash, a deal he says shareholders will “love.”

Musk’s Twitter saga started earlier this month when a filing showed he purchased 9.2 percent of Twitter in March. He was set to join the social media giant’s board of directors before pulling out.

“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk says in the most recent filing.

In a message posted on the platform, Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal provided no specifics on why Musk pulled out but believed the decision was “for the best.”

Musk’s recent filing provides a little more detail for his thought process, doubting how the company currently runs.

“Since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”

This is Musk’s only offer, and he states he will not be “playing the back-and-forth game.” He will reconsider his position as a shareholder if the offer isn’t accepted.

Image credit: Dan Taylor/Heisenberg Media 

Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission via Bloomberg

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter acquires OpenBack to improve its notifications

Twitter has acquired mobile platform OpenBack to improve its notification system and to keep users coming back to its app.

Twitter’s head of consumer product Jay Sullivan also wrote, “OpenBack and their talented team joining Twitter will help us improve our ability to deliver the right notifications at the right time, in a way that puts people’s privacy first.”

OpenBack, founded in 2015, aims to make apps more engaging through on-device control of push notifications. The platform allows apps to process data on devices — like other push notifications — instead of a third-party server.

OpenBack will shut down officially on April 19th. The developers at OpenBack will join Twitter’s Bluebird product team.

The end goal is to use more dynamic notifications to improve Twitter’s level of engagement and draw in its user base.

Source: @jaysullivan Via: Engadget 

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter shareholder hits Elon Musk with lawsuit over his investment

Tesla CEO Elon Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder in the past few weeks, then decided to join Twitter’s board of directors and not join the board directors about six days later. Now, a Twitter shareholder has filed a class-action lawsuit against Musk over his delay in disclosing his investment in Twitter to the SEC.

Musk was required by law to file paperwork with the SEC by March 24th when his stake in Twitter grew five percent, but he didn’t until April 4th. Now, he’s being sued for $156 million USD (roughly $197 million CAD).

“Investors who sold shares of Twitter stock between March 24, 2022, when Musk was required to have disclosed his Twitter ownership, and before the actual April 4, 2022 disclosure, missed the resulting share price increase as the market reacted to Musk’s purchases and were damaged thereby,” the lawsuit states.

The shareholder who made the suit says he and others “sold shares of Twitter at artificially deflated prices during the class period, and has been damaged by the revelation of the Musk’s material misrepresentations and material omissions.” Further, the shareholder and the class “would not have sold Twitter’s securities at the price sold, or at all, if they had been aware that the market prices had artificially and falsely deflated by Defendant’s misleading statements.”

This has been a strange past few weeks for Twitter and Musk. The co-founder of Tesla also recently polled his follers on Twitter asking whether the company should change its name, asked about an edit button and more.

Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal states that he believes that Musk not joining the Twitter board was for the best.

Source: Marc Bain Rasella v Musk, Engadget

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Mobile Syrup

Wordle was the second-most tweeted about game in Q1 2022: Twitter

Twitter has revealed the most tweeted about games of the first quarter of 2022, and popular word puzzler Wordle has claimed the second spot globally.

This puts Wordle above Ensemble Stars, Apex Legends and Final Fantasy, respectively. That said, the viral sensation couldn’t top Genshin Impact. 

Here’s the full top 10, for reference:

Elden Ring is particularly notable considering it only just released on February 25th.

Outside of this top 10, Twitter says Q1 2022 was the biggest quarter to date in terms of gaming conversation, with nearly 800 million tweets about games during this time. This marks a 52 percent increase from Q1 2021 and a 12 percent jump from Q4 2021.

These tweets came from 48 million unique authors, Twitter says, which is up 12 percent year-over-year.

What games have you been tweeting about the most? Let us know in the comments.

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter confirms it’s working on edit button, Elon Musk will likely take credit

Twitter has confirmed that it’s officially working on a heavily-requested feature: an edit button.

The social network made the announcement through its official @TwitterComms account.

Interestingly, this comes shortly after Elon Musk — who recently purchased a stake in Twitter and joined the company’s board — publicly asked users if they wanted an edit button.

However, Twitter noted in its tweet that the idea for the edit button didn’t come from a poll, in a clear reference to Musk. Instead, the company says it’s been working on the edit button since last year.

The feature will begin testing within Twitter Blue Labs in the “coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t and what’s possible,” Twitter says.

Twitter users have long asked for an edit button, as the only way to correct any mistakes otherwise is to fully delete and tweet again.

However, people have warned that this could be used maliciously, especially in an era of misinformation. For example, someone could tweet something innocuous, receive many likes and retweets and then edit the tweet to include something harmful. To that point, users have suggested an “edit history” section in the vein of Facebook so that a public record of previous versions of a given tweet can be accessed.

It’s unclear exactly what form the Twitter edit button will take, but the company’s comment about needing to “learn what works, what doesn’t and what’s possible” at least seems to acknowledge the importance of getting this right.

Source: @TwitterComms

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Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk joins Twitter’s board of directors until 2024

After buying a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter and becoming the platform’s largest shareholder, Tesla CEO and terminally online, middle-aged man Elon Musk will join Twitter’s board of directors.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing spotted by The Verge, Twitter appointed Musk as a ‘class II’ director until 2024. The Verge notes that type of position can be used as an anti-takeover measure.

“For so long as Mr. Musk is serving on the Board and for 90 days thereafter, Mr. Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the Company’s common stock outstanding at such time, including for these purposes economic exposure through derivative securities, swaps, or hedging transactions,” reads the filing.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal took to the platform to welcome Musk to the board, calling him “both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service.”

In a reply, Musk wrote that he was excited to work with the board and “make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months.”

It’s worth noting that Musk has previously accused Twitter of “failing to adhere to free speech principles” while contemplating creating a new platform. Given Musk’s failure to understand what free speech actually is, I have concerns about these incoming “improvements.”

That said, in yet another attempt to prove he’s cool, Musk launched a Twitter poll asking if people want an edit button with the seemingly deliberately misspelled options of “yse” or “on.”

Plus, Agrawal jumped on, noting that the “consequences of this poll will be important,” suggesting the company may actually add an edit button.

So, maybe we’ll get something good out of Musk joining the Twitter board.

Source: Twitter, SEC Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

After complaining about free speech on Twitter, Elon Musk buys 9.2 percent stake in the social media platform

Elon Musk now owns a stake in Twitter.

The SpaceX CEO, freedom convoy supporter, and frequent bad meme tweeter purchased 9.2 percent of the social media platform on March 14th.

News of the purchase was released Monday morning through a Securities and Exchange Commission 13G filing.

This led to Twitter’s shares increasing more than 21 percent. According to CNBC, Musk’s stake is worth $2.89 billion USD (roughly $3.6 billion CAD), based on the social platform’s closing numbers Friday.

He now owns almost 73.5 million Twitter shares.

A little over a week ago, Musk launched a poll asking users if Twitter “rigorously adheres” to the principle that “free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.”

A day later, he asked his 80.2 million followers if “a new platform is needed?” Hours later, he tweeted that he was “giving serious thought” to building a new social media platform.

Musk has previously gotten into trouble for his tweets.

In 2018, he tweeted that funds were in place to take Tesla private if shares reached $420 USD (about $523 CAD) each. No such deal was in the works.

As a result, Tesla lawyers have to approve his tweets. Musk is currently trying to get the agreement thrown out and is (questionably?) using quotes from Eminem to get his point across. 

Image credit: Dan Taylor/Heisenberg Media 

Source: CNBC

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter’s Android app will finally let users copy tweet text

Twitter is working on a new feature of its Android app: the ability to select text in tweets.

This feature lands squarely in the “why the hell couldn’t we already do this?” pile, but hey, at least it’s finally happening. Twitter for Android users will finally be able to copy and paste text from tweets. Great!

Leaker Jane Manchun Wong uncovered the work-in-progress feature and tweeted about it over the weekend. Currently, the Twitter for Android app lets users copy a whole tweet (and a link to said tweet), but not highlight and select specific parts of the text.

Some users also pointed out that Android’s ‘Overview Selection’ feature — the ability to copy text from apps and pictures visible in the multitasking screen — allowed users to copy text from Twitter. However, as pointed out by Mishaal Rahman, that feature is only really available on Google Pixels.

Anyway, this incredibly basic feature is finally coming to Android after an embarrassingly long time, adding another level of feature parity between the iOS and Android Twitter apps.

Source: Jane Manchun Wong Via: Android Police

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Entertainment News

Elon Musk invests heavily in Twitter

13 August 2021, Brandenburg, Grünheide: Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, stands in the foundry of the Tesla Gigafactory during a press event. The first vehicles are scheduled to roll off the production line in Grünheide near Berlin from the end of 2021. The US company plans to build around 500,000 units of the compact Model 3 and Model Y series here each year. Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB Where: Grünheide, Brandenburg, Germany When: 13 Aug 2021 Credit: Patrick Pleul/DPA/Cover Images **ONLY AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE UK AND USA**

Elon Musk, boss of Tesla and SpaceX among others, has just taken a significant stake in the social network Twitter.

The richest man on the planet is buying 9.2 percent of Twitter Inc. and thus becomes the platform’s largest shareholder.

The announcement this morning of the deal in a regulatory filing sent Twitter’s stock soaring. Elon Musk’s stakein Twitteris worthabout $2.89 billion (US).

Elon Musk is a regular Twitter user and is followed on the social network by over 80 million people.

Chosen as the 2021 Person of the Year by the prestigious Time magazine, Elon Musk has been investing for years in numerous companies or various original projects. In addition to electric vehicles with Tesla, or the conquest of space with SpaceX, the billionaire has embarked on the diversification of urban transport or in the neurotechnologies for example.

Elon Musk’s arrival at Twitter could have major implications. The network is under pressure to accelerate the creation of new products.

The billionaire has often been critical of Twitter, which may be why the markets have welcomed his investment.