When Elon Musk first announced his deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, the billionaire tech mogul believed that his ownership of the company would restore free speech to the masses, and even help to preserve humanity. (Seriously, this is what was said!) Then, almost immediately, everything went sideways.
On The Small Business Radio Show this week, I interviewed Bloomberg journalist Kurt Wagner who uses his years of knowledge and experience covering social media to write the ultimate book on the story of Twitter. In “Battle for the Bird: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, and the $44 Billion Fight for Twitter’s Soul”. Kurt presents a deeply reported, insider exploration into the key moments and decisions that led to Musk’s $44 billion Twitter purchase – and the legal and cultural chaos that soon followed.
In an interview, we discussed:
- Why Did Elon Musk buy Twitter?
- Why did he think he could “restore free speech and preserve humanity”?
- Why Jack Dorsey’s relationship with Elon Musk is a key reason that the Twitter deal got done.
- How Twitter acquired so much power over global speech during Dorsey’s tenure as CEO.
- What the source of Twitter’s downfall was – “it never figured out how to turn that massive cultural impact into a comparable business”.
- Why Jack Dorsey believed Twitter’s decision to become a business, and not just a non-profit, was Twitter’s “original sin.”
- How Twitter’s employees have reacted to the sale and what is going on now.
- How Elon Musk does not seem to understand the advertising industry, and yet he bought a business that makes 90% of its revenue from advertising.
- Why Elon Musk changed the name of Twitter to X.
- Why despite its business struggles, Twitter was at its best during breaking news events.
Listen to the entire fascinating interview on The Small Business Radio Show about what happened at Twitter.
Image: Depositphotos
Twitter is going to be case study material in business schools for 50 years. So many things went wrong.
I think to take Twitter in the right direction it needs years of expertise, supervision and management. Elon Musk must take time to understand how things like free speech should be implemented in a sustainable way without affecting businesses and the users.
yes elon Musk must take time to understand how things like free speech should be implemented in a sustainable way without affecting businesses and the users.