Elon Musk

By April 2022, things were going well in all of Musk’s businesses: Tesla shares were up, SpaceX was successful, and the companies he had founded were worth trillions of dollars. However, Musk grew restless with this period of success. He had billions of dollars in the bank and wanted to spend it on something. So, he asked himself what product he liked, and he landed on Twitter. He told his personal manager to buy shares of the company. According to Isaacson, Twitter was “an ideal—almost too ideal—playground for Musk” (442). Twitter offered Musk a position on the board. However, he felt that too many restrictions were being placed on him; he did not want to refrain from tweeting critical thoughts about the company, so he told his manager to reject the agreement. The board sent back a revised agreement and Musk accepted.

Musk wanted to create a blockchain-based social media system that handled payments and was similar to Twitter. He mused that he could simply buy the company, take it private, and shape it to his whims. He sent Twitter an offer letter, offering to buy it for $54.20 per share in cash. Then, he tweeted out a message saying, “I made an offer” (445).