Twitter’s board deserves credit for Elon Musk’s U-turn

Public squabble between the two largest offshore exchanges’ bosses led to run on FTX and forced saleThe two largest offshore cryptocurrency exchanges are merging, after a week of public squabbling between Binance’s chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, and FTX’s boss, Sam Bankman-Fried, triggered a bank run at the latter’s exchange and an embarrassing forced sale on Tuesday.“This afternoon, FTX asked for our help,” tweeted Zhao. “There is a significant liquidity crunch. To protect users, we signed a non-binding [letter of intent], intending to fully acquire FTX.com.” Continue reading...

The failure of a recent bid to merge two large publishing companies shines a light on a central issue of cultural powerDespite a rise in self-publishing, commercial publishers are still the main gatekeepers of what arrives on our bookshelves. As such, they have great cultural and – if a book takes off – economic power. A case decided in a US court this week provided an insight into just how much of that power is now concentrated in a small handful of multinational companies.At issue was a planned merger of Simon & Schuster with Penguin Random House (PRH) – two of the so-called big five, which between them control 90% of the US publishing market, a fact not always obvious to the casual observer, as books usually carry on their spines the names of imprints, or subdivisions, of the parent company. PRH, itself the result of a mega-merger in 2013, runs about 300 imprints. Given the reach of these companies – PRH is active in more than 20 countries – the Department of Justice’s successful argument that the planned $2.2bn deal would “exert outsized influence over which books are published in the United States and how much authors are paid for their work” applies globally. Continue reading...

Platform says 300 accounts carried out 50,000-plus tweets in ‘organised effort to make users think firm has changed content policy’Banned British far-right figures return within hours of takeoverHeaven or hellscape – what will Musk’s Twitter look like?Fears raised over disinformation and hate speechTwitter has been hit by a coordinated trolling campaign in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover, with more than 50,000 tweets from 300 accounts bombarding the platform with hateful content.The social media platform said it has been targeted with an attempt to make users think Twitter has dropped or weakened its content policies after the world’s richest man bought the company for $44bn (£38bn) last week. Continue reading...

China’s property meltdown, the unwinding of QE and the tech stock plunge all show a fragile global financial ecosystem under stressThere’s always one deal that symbolises the end of an era. In the early 2000s AOL’s merger with Time Warner served notice that the dot-com boom was over. Royal Bank of Scotland’s over-priced takeover of ABN Amro was followed by the global financial crisis of 2008-09. The question now is whether Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter will be seen as the moment the global economy tipped into recession.The signs are not promising. Even before Musk sealed the deal, tech stocks had seen a sharp sell-off. The stock market value of Meta, the parent of Facebook, fell by $80bn on Thursday after Mark Zuckerberg’s company announced a 50% drop in third-quarter profits. The reason was simple: advertisers are reining in spending in response to slowing global growth. Continue reading...

EU commissioner says Elon Musk’s platform must ‘fly by our rules’ as UK minister raises concerns over content moderation Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition has been polarizing, sparking reactions from politicians, regulators and non-profits across different continents.Some have expressed concerns about potential changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies now that it’s in the hands of the Tesla billionaire, while others celebrated how they expect the platform’s newly minted leader will handle content and speech on Twitter. Continue reading...

Compensation for fired executives adds to already hefty bill for Elon Musk’s debt-funded takeoverMusk completes Twitter takeover and ‘fires top executives’Shares taken off stock exchange after Musk seals takeoverFears raised over disinformation and hate speechTwitter’s top executives will be entitled to “golden parachute” payouts worth more than $120m if removed as expected by the company’s new owner, Elon Musk.Musk reportedly immediately removed the chief executive, Parag Agrawal, finance boss Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal, policy and safety, after closing the $44bn takeover of the social network company. Continue reading...

Shares delisted and top execs reportedly fired as world’s richest man closes deal to buy social media platformThe world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has completed his $44bn acquisition of Twitter, amid warnings from politicians and campaigners that hate speech on the platform must be held in check.The social media group confirmed the deal in a brief filing on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday morning, disclosing the deal had closed the day before. Shares in the company have been suspended and will delist on 8 November, capping a chaotic saga that began when the Tesla CEO first announced his plans to take the tech business private in April. Continue reading...

The $44bn deal will give world’s richest man control of social media platform with more than 230m usersElon Musk has completed his $44bn takeover of Twitter, taking control of the company and reportedly firing several top executives, including the chief executive, Parag Agrawal.The world’s richest man tweeted “the bird is freed”, in a reference to Twitter’s corporate logo, just hours before a court-ordered deadline to buy the business expired. Continue reading...

Tweet comes as advertisers fear one of his first moves as chief will be to restore Donald Trump’s accountElon Musk has claimed he has “acquired Twitter” in a post to the social network reassuring advertisers it will stay a safe place for their brands, amid fears one of his first actions as chief executive will be to restore Donald Trump’s account.After months of uncertainty over whether or not his $44bn acquisition of the social media platform would go through, the Tesla chief executive’s post is the strongest acknowledgment yet that the deal is expected to be sealed before its deadline of 5pm in Delaware on Friday. Continue reading...