Put your hands together.
After months of trying to back out of a deal, Musk appears ready to buy the company. Mr. Musk offered to take the company private at his original price of $54.20 per share in a letter to the company on Monday night.
It is possible that the deal will fall apart, but the most likely outcome is that Mr. Musk will become the new owner of the social networking site.
It's not known what Mr. Musk will do with the social networking site if he acquires it. The billionaire has only made vague statements about his plans for the company.
Thanks in part to a bunch of text messages released as part of the legal battle, we now know that it will be something different. If the deal closes, I will make at least six predictions.
Last week, a set of text messages between Mr. Musk and his friends came to light. Mr. Musk made it clear that he was not happy with the current leadership of the company.
The texts show that Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Musk had a friendly dinner in March. The men got into a fight. Mr. Agrawal told Mr. Musk in a text message that he wasn't helping him makeTwitter better.
This week, what did you accomplish? Mr. Musk responded. This is not a good idea.
It is clear from reading Mr. Musk's texts that he believes that the leadership of the company is weak and incapable of carrying out his vision. I would expect Mr. Musk to fire him on the first day and replace him with a close ally.
It is difficult to see how Mr. Musk could fire Mr. Agrawal without also clearing out most or all of the company's top leadership.
It is easy to make a prediction about Mr. Musk taking over the company.
Many employees are invested in the company's mission of promoting "healthy conversation." It is possible that the employees believe that Mr. Musk will abandon many of the projects they care about. They might not want to deal with the drama and tumult of Musk's regime and start looking for other jobs.
Some employees quit in anticipation of Musk taking over. If the deal closes, there will be many more.
In his texts with Mr. Musk, Mr. Agrawal claimed that a majority of employees supported Mr. Musk. In the last six months, almost all of the employees I have spoken to have said that they would leave if Mr. Musk took over.
There is a chance that Mr. Musk will not mind if a lot of employees show themselves the door. He implied that the company's staff is bloated, and now that he needs to justify a $44 billion price tag, an exodus of unhappy employees could be the kind of savings he is looking for.
Mr. Musk has said that he would allow Mr. Trump to reestablish his account on the platform if he succeeds in getting it.
I think that will happen very soon. No matter how much fun he is having on Truth Social, Mr. Trump will come back to the social networking site.
Mr. Musk will extend his platform beyond the president. A group of right-wing culture warriors could return to the service with Mr. Musk's approval. In his text messages, Mr. Musk said that he wanted to reverse all permanent bans on the micro-blogging site.
Mr. Musk has made no secret of his plans to make the platform friendlier to right-wingers. He supports The Babylon Bee, a satire site whose account was suspended after it published a joke about a Biden administration official. The Representative who was suspended from her personal account for sharing misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines has urged Mr. Musk to bring her back.
Along with one-off reversals of high-profile bans, I would expect that Mr. Musk would tear up the existing rules and rewrite them. If those teams don't quit immediately.
He could even name his own group of free-speech advocates. According to a trove of text messages released during the court battle, one of Mr. Musk's friends suggested that he put a Republican in charge of enforcement at the social networking site. Mr Musk didn't reply to the suggestion.
It is possible that Mr. Musk will take over before the elections. There is still time for him to make decisions if it does happen.
Between now and November Mr. Musk will have his hands full. With only a month left until the elections, I don't think there will be a straight line from Mr. Musk's takeover to a Republican sweep.
There will be a different election in twenty four years. If the deal is done, Mr. Musk will be able to make his own mark on the company. By that time, the platform could look vastly different, with more right-wing troll, or it could be the same. Mr. Musk will be in charge of the company, and if it continues to play a role in American politics and media culture that it does today, he will emerge as a central, polarizing figure in the election cycle.
Republicans are excited that Mr. Musk will take over. The political consequences of his ownership are hard to forecast. I concede that it is unlikely that Mr. Musk will be good for Democrats in the future, but I think it is possible that he will be good for Republicans in the future.
It's a good bet that they will be closely scrutinized for signs that he is putting his thumb on the scale.
Some of the most revealing exchanges in Mr. Musk's text messages were about his thoughts on the social media platform.
Mr. Musk was not a fan of the subscription-based product that gives users access to premium features. Mr. Musk is a big fan of cryptocurrencies, but he doesn't like the idea of using a block chain to rebuildTwitter.
I would expect Mr. Musk to make a number of changes to the products early on. The first thing he will do is shut down many of the noncore features that don't generate a lot of money for the company. He will try to rid the site of bots, a problem that he has said is one of the worst parts of the site. Back before he decided to buy it again he tried to get out of the deal.
Mr. Musk will try to shift away from advertising revenue and towards other moneymaking opportunities, including payments features, data-licensing agreements and a mysterious new subscription product, which he claims will have 104 million paying users by 2028.
Predicting that Mr. Musk will become a bigger celebrity is easy.
One of the most well-known people in the world is Mr. Musk. His power has been a function of his wealth and the amount of online followers. All of this mattered a lot to the people involved, but it was all dependent on whether or not he could keep throwing bombs at his opponents.
It's not the same as owning a social networking site. If the deal closes, Mr. Musk will have direct control over one of the world's largest megaphones, and will be able to use it as he sees fit, even if that means turning it into a lawless free-for-all. We can expect that whatever Mr. Musk chooses to do with the social media platform will be interesting.
Mr. Musk was not going to escape. Looking away won't be possible.
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