In a predicted series of moves Musk has boosted his wealth with a tweet, likely beginning to damage the fortunes of tens of thousands of investors in Twitter.
Empty accounts, bots, semi-automated accounts and networks of socks pushing crypto, porn, jokes or radicalized hate, all designed to manipulate people exist plentifully on Twitter. Musk USES those, let’s be honest about that. His account is artificially boosted by those very accounts, and an algorithm that suggests he be followed. Then we have that seemingly repeated pattern of his enemies being targeted by Social Media Influencer Ops, with Rebekah Jones, Jim Stewartson, and now Amber Heard costing someone each millions to “silence,” defame and destroy.
Musk knows what he is doing.
His seemingly having Yonder on his PR team helps sell the whole Musk doesn’t know what he is doing narrative while equally harming Twitter and anyone unfortunate that has investment in the company. Here is “former” Peter Thiel and “former” Yonder employee repping.
Yeah, Musk knows what he is doing.
He wants the influencers to amplify a given narrative, that he may pay the billion opt out, in order to renegotiate his authoritarian Twitter takeover for significantly less.
So how is his added PR plan to boost Musk’s Tesla wealth and slash Twitter?
Twitter, which Elon promised to buy out all the common stock taking the company private at just over $54 per share is currently valued under $40 at around $38. That is up for the day, meaning most investors are in a wait and see hold pattern, hoping for that big pay day Elon’s buyout will bring.
Musk hasn’t extensively damaged Twitter’s stock value yet, but he is only getting started. I expect his calls for a SEC investigation will ramp up along with other attacks slashing off another 25%-50% of Twitter’s present value allowing him to renegotiate the takeover, stealing the company for under 25B. Why? Because like Trump before him, Elon can make a whole bunch of money instantly appear with a social media nudge that trends.
Trump did that multiple times, buying considerable amounts of stock, starting a rumor via a favored disinformation mule he was going to buy out a company, then sell for big profits after investors took the bait. Eventually, investors got savvy, and sold heavy on Trump’s fourth attempt to “buy” a company. Once Trump took over as President, he had that same mojo, able to grossly profit or destroy others’ fortunes off of a tweet or a suggestion.
Elon is far more sophisticated and manipulative than Trump, which should scare everyone over his Twitter acquisition.
Tesla itself is up by more than 5% today above $760 because investors are buying into the false story Musk won’t buy Twitter. That higher Tesla price allows him to exercise his options to buy his own Tesla stock for under $6 a share and to then sell for the full $760 or higher current price. I still expect him to put more upwards pressure on Tesla before he does that, while also working to push down Twitter stock prices.
Just remember Musk, after working on this for over a year, is absolutely buying Twitter. The only question is how badly can he damage it to get the best purchase price.