The secret behind Musk's decision to spend $44 billion to buy Twitter 6
In April 2022, things couldn’t have gone better for Elon Musk.
But Shivon Zilis, director of operations at brain chip company Neuralink and Musk’s twin child, sees his boss `like a game addict, winning but refusing to leave the computer`.
`You don’t always need to be in a state of war. Or do you feel more comfortable in that state?`, Zilis asked.
`It’s a default part of who I am,` Musk replied.
At that time, Musk owned more than $10 billion in cash thanks to stock options at Tesla.
In fact, before giving the above answer, Musk secretly asked personal business assistant Jared Birchall to buy Twitter shares from January 2022.
Illustration of Elon Musk as game character Elden Ring.
The above story is part of an upcoming biography about Elon Musk written by Walter Isaacson.
`It was an addictive playground for him,` Isaacson said.
Two decades earlier, Musk founded X.com and wanted to create `the app of everything`.
As soon as he started buying Twitter shares, Musk saw X as a suitable name for his original idea.
One night in late March 2022, after the Twitter stock purchase information was announced, Musk called Parag Agrawal, who had just replaced Jack Dorsey to become Twitter CEO.
Musk found Agrawal to be a likeable person.
But that’s the problem.
At that time, Musk had not thought about taking over Twitter himself.
Musk reiterated the view that Twitter needs to be a place of free speech.
A day later, Kimbal’s brother supported the idea of a social network integrating blockchain.
`Most accounts with many followers rarely tweet. Will Twitter die or not?`, Musk wrote at 3:32.
90 minutes later, Agrawal sent a text message to Musk, implying that the American billionaire should not disparage the company.
`What have you done this week?`, Musk replied angrily.
Agrawal was shocked and asked: `Can we talk?`.
During the next three minutes, Bret Taylor texted Musk: `Can you give me five minutes so I can understand the context?`.
`Fixing Twitter by chatting with Parag won’t work,` Musk said.
Musk was then in an excited mood and acted impulsively.
`The platform already has a user base,` Musk texted his assistant Birchall.
Afterwards, Musk flew to Vancouver to meet his girlfriend Grime.
Moments later, Musk tweeted: `I’ve made an offer.`
`About how much money?`, Ellison asked.
`I’m not binding, but the deal was given too large a number,` Musk replied.
`A billion dollars,` Ellison responded.
`If you find the foundation important, I think the investment is worth it,` Musk said.
Another person excited to participate is Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
However, Musk still raised enough money to make an offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion at the end of April 2022.
In the months between the deal’s launch and its official completion, Musk’s mood fluctuated wildly.
By October 26, 2022, Musk is scheduled to take over Twitter.
