Twitter Archives - Latest News | Global Business Review Magazines

Elon Musk is looking for the next CEO of Twitter

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Admin

Elon Musk’s taking over Twitter for $44 billion has been in the news for some time. Added to that the phenomenon has received a lot of chaos and controversy, with some investors questioning if he is too distracted to also properly run his electric vehicle automaker Tesla Inc in which he is personally involved in production and engineering. But this time Musk has said something which is beyond the imagination of the Individual. On Tuesday he claimed that he will step down as chief executive of Twitter Inc once he finds a replacement, but will still run some key divisions of the social media platform.

“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

The Voting

According to Reuters, “This is the first time Musk has mentioned stepping down as chief of the social media platform, after Twitter users voted for him to resign in a poll, which the billionaire launched on Sunday evening.

In the poll, 57.5% of around 17.5 million people voted “yes.” Musk had said on Sunday he would abide by the results. He has not provided a time frame for when he will step down and no successor has been named.

The poll results capped a whirlwind week that included changes to Twitter’s privacy policy and the suspension – and reinstatement – of journalists’ accounts that drew condemnation from news organizations, advocacy groups and officials across Europe.”

But according to Euro News, “He has ignored results of polls he has run before, redoing ones that may not have had the result he wanted, including a poll on unsuspending accounts that he claimed had revealed his real-time location.

A number of those accounts were of journalists from the mainstream media, such as Donie O’Sullivan from CNN, who had tweeted an official LAPD statement regarding a tweet sent by Musk.”

For more latest news, click here.

Elon Musk’s texts with Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal detail tumultuous Twitter negotiations

Posted on October 1, 2022 by Admin

A tranche of Elon Musk’s private messages have been made public as part of his ongoing lawsuit with Twitter. The messages, revealed in a court filing Thursday, shed new light on Musk’s behind-the-scenes negotiations with Twitter’s leadership, as well discussions with former CEO Jack Dorsey, and how Musk’s talks with CEO Parag Agrawal quickly soured.

The messages include the moment Musk tells Agrawal he wants to acquire Twitter and take it private, rather than join the board. Agrawal confronts Musk about an April 9th tweet questioning if “Twitter is dying.”

Texts exchanged between Elon Musk, Agarwal and Dorsey

Musk responded less than a minute later. The messages also provide a glimpse into the relationship between Dorsey and Musk. Dorsey has publicly said that “Elon is the singular solution I trust,” but hasn’t publicly commented since Musk sued in an attempt to renege on the acquisition. But in the newly released messages, it’s clear Dorsey has wanted Musk to take on an active role at Twitter for some time. Dorsey tells Musk that he wanted him to join Twitter’s board of directors long before Musk acquired a large stake in the company.

Dorsey seemed to be referring to Elliott Management, the activist investor that attempted to oust Dorsey in early 2020. Notably, this conversation occurred in late March, after Musk had acquired a multibillion-dollar stake in Twitter, but before his stake had been made public. He and Dorsey also discussed the Twitter cofounder’s belief that Twitter “can’t be a company.”

Musk responds that the idea is “super interesting” and that “it’s worth both trying to move Twitter in a better direction and doing something new that’s decentralized.” The following month, Dorsey also attempted to play mediator between Musk and Agrawal, at one point arranging a call between the three of them. “You and I are in complete agreement,” Musk tells Dorsey. “Parag is just moving far too slowly and trying to please people who will not be happy no matter what he does.”

For more updates on retail industry, Click here.

Elon Musk and Twitter are now fighting about Signal messages

Posted on September 28, 2022 by Admin

Elon Musk’s private messages could once again land him in hot water in his legal fight with Twitter. Lawyers for the two sides once again faced off in Delaware’s Court of Chancery ahead of an October trial that will determine the fate of the deal.

Among the issues raised in the more than three-hour long hearing was Musk’s use of encrypted messaging app Signal. Twitter’s lawyers claim that Musk has been withholding messages sent via the app, citing a screenshot of an exchange between Musk and Jared Birchall, the head of Musk’s family office.

In Twitter’s View

According to Twitter’s lawyers, the message referenced Morgan Stanley and Marc Andreesen as well as “a conversation about EU regulatory approval” of Musk’s deal with Twitter. Twitter’s lawyers said they uncovered a screenshot of the exchange after Musk and Birchall had denied using Signal to talk about the deal. The screenshot showed the message was set to automatically delete.

Lawyers for Twitter also cited “a missing text message” between Musk and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, who was set to be a co-investor in the Twitter deal. Musk and Ellison were texting the morning before Musk tweeted that the Twitter deal was “temporarily on hold.” It’s not clear what the significance of the texts are, but Twitter’s lawyers noted that Musk wrote to Ellison saying “interesting times” before arranging a phone call with him.

Twitter’s lawyers are asking the judge in the case, Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, to sanction Musk over his side’s handling of his messages. “We do think that the time has come for the court to issue a severe sanction,” Twitter’s lawyers said during the hearing.

In Elon Musk’s View

Musk’s side attempted to downplay the significance of the Tesla CEO’s use of Signal. “There actually is no evidence that we destroyed evidence,” one of Musk’s lawyers responded. “Signal, you know, it sounds like it’s a nefarious device,” she said. “In fact, Twitter executives have testified that a number of them actually use Signal messaging.”

Musk’s lawyers cited the existence of Signal messages between Jack Dorsey and board chair Bret Taylor, and noted that current CEO Parag Agrawal has also turned over Signal messages. “Signal is not some exotic mechanism, it’s very common in Silicon Valley to use this platform,” she said.

For more updates on legal industry, Click here.

Elon Musk made his bid, and now he might actually have to lie in it

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Admin

Twitter shareholders have approved Elon Musk’s Twitter dot com acquisition, so that’s nice. Musk has, at this point, sent several letters trying to terminate the deal, and who knows, maybe he’ll send more. His pretext for backing out of the deal — I am not going to try to pretend that he really believes this stuff — isn’t looking so good, partly because his whistleblower deus ex machina seems to be a bust. One way to implement the changes Zatko wanted was to run Dorsey over!

Elon Musk’s lies

The pretext Musk is leaning on is that Twitter is knowingly lying about its user numbers, overcounting bots, and so on. A whistleblower complaint filed by Peiter “Mudge” Zatko maybe bolsters his case slightly, but not much. Underlings expect that their bosses will help defend them in their work disputes. But executives don’t have that luxury. They are at the top of the food chain and are themselves responsible for resolving conflicts. There is nobody to go to in order to complain, not the board who only wants results, and not HR, because you are above HR. Not anybody — you have to resolve your own disputes.

Zatko’s complaint seems to be about looking for dispute resolution in the court of public opinion, because he was unable to resolve his dispute with [Twitter CEO Parag] Agrawal himself. In fact, the more I hear, the more I think current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal had a point about Zatko’s “poor leadership,” which was one of the reasons Agrawal cited for Zatko’s firing. I’m not alone, either — Twitter shares closed up 2 percent after Zatko’s testimony on Tuesday, which doesn’t sound like much until you realize the rest of the stock market fell. Seems like investors didn’t think much of Zatko’s complaints, either.

Plus, as Techdirt’s Mike Masnick has noted, Zatko’s thoughts on Twitter’s measurement of monetizable users don’t square with Musk’s arguments about bots and fake accounts. There is one bright side for Musk here, though. (Well, besides the Zatko-related shareholder lawsuit.) He tweeted out a link to the Tesla merch store where one could order a “Cyberwhistle” for 1,000 Dogecoin. The “Cyberwhistle” is now out of stock, and presumably, Tesla is many Dogecoin richer.

For more updates on finance industry, Click here

Twitter has been Overstating its Daily Users for the Past Three Years

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Admin

For the past three years, Twitter has been overstating its number of daily users. The platform has been overcounting by upto 1.9 million users each quarter for three years state.

The “Overstating Daily Users” Error

The error was due to Twitter inadvertently counting multiple accounts as active when they were all tied to a single user, even if they weren’t all in use. These incorrect usage numbers were given for Q1 2019 through Q4 2021. This is not the first time Twitter has done this. In 2017, Twitter also realized it had been overstating its user figures by about 1 million to 2 million users for three years. The repeat mistake was revealed today in Twitter’s earnings release for the first quarter of 2022.

The updated figures aren’t exactly a game-changer: Twitter now has 229 million daily users, which is still up more than 10 million, even from last quarter’s inflated number. But they are one final embarrassing slip-up for Twitter as the company wrangles a deal to be taken private, at which point it will no longer have to share these figures publicly.

Twitter reported an operating loss of $128 million on revenue of $1.2 billion, both in line with its own guidance for the quarter. Revenue rose 16 percent year over year, with Twitter citing “headwinds associated with the war in Ukraine.”

Musk’s take on Twitter

On Monday, Twitter accepted a buyout offer from Elon Musk, agreeing to give him control of the company for $44 billion. The deal is expected to close later this year. Because of the pending sale, Twitter says it will stop providing guidance on its performance and is “withdrawing all previously provided goals and outlook.”

Musk has given vague statements about how he’ll change Twitter, promising to “enhanc[e] the product with new features,” make its algorithms open source, crack down on spambots, and verify all users. He’s also harped endlessly about turning it into a platform for free speech, which has raised concerns about how he’ll oversee moderation on the platform.

Notably, Musk has said that buying Twitter “is not a way to make money.” The company has never been a huge moneymaker, and Musk has repeatedly emphasized that he wants to make changes to Twitter so that it can remain a “de facto town square.”

Also Read: Facebook shows Inability to Manage User Data

Tag: Twitter