Disclaimer: This article was prepared by the author in their personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the opinions of Fuzu Limited.
This man, Elon Musk manages to attract an army of Twitter soldiers, obsessed fans (I’m one too. Why else would I spend 238 hours researching and writing about this man?), and devoted followers who, as Time put it hang on his every utterance.
Musk has revolutionized the auto and space industry. However, over the past few months, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to take Elon Musk seriously. I honestly feel bad for Twitter employees. They have no control over the chaos surrounding their company. Imagine if your employer sued a new boss who has made it very clear that he doesn’t want to be your boss.
Who is Elon Musk?
You must be living under a rock if you don’t know who Musk is. No judgement here (proceeds to judge intensely).
Elon Musk is the founder of the largest electric vehicle manufacturer, Tesla. He has also co-founded 5 other companies including The Boring Company and Space X.
He’s Dogecoin’s biggest fan, known for creating surges on the meme coin with less than 280 characters. The man is that powerful.
He is the richest person in the world, with a current net worth of 237.9 billion dollars. Read that again. In 2021, he was named Time’s person of the year. He’s smarter than you and I combined (someone had to say it). A transformational leader, without a doubt.
Does Musk run the market?
In a Bloomberg article, Matt Levine wrote, “The way finance works now is that things are valuable not based on their cash flows but on their proximity to Elon Musk.” Does Musk think he can single-handedly control the crypto stock market? Walk with me for a second here.
Dogecoin and Shiba, popularly known as meme coins, have largely been popularized by Elon Musk. Some have called him an evangelist of cryptocurrencies.
His tweets about crypto are promotional and seen as an endorsement, hence the surges in the market. This tweet alone created a surge of 43% on the meme coin over the next two hours. Trying to measure the exact impact any single event has on the market is often futile, but the correlation between Dogecoin’s rise and Musk’s praise is undeniable.
Tesla, one of Musk’s companies has a small percentage of its assets in Bitcoin. In 2021, Musk announced that Tesla would accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for the electric car. That month, the value of Bitcoin reached $65,000 dollars (It’s currently valued at $19,696 dollars at the time of writing this article). A few months later, Musk canceled Bitcoin as a form of payment for Tesla. This move still had significant effects on the market, amplifying the considerable volatility of crypto assets.
Musk and Twitter
Musk eats mars for breakfast. Yes, Mars - the planet he’s presumably taking us all to inhabit. A quick look at his tweets will give you a glimpse into his personality. He’s charismatic, cocky, controversial, and unique, an acquired taste if you must. He gets away with tweeting almost anything.
On April 5th, 2022, Musk shared this tweet, asking, “Do you want an edit button?” 4.4 million people voted - that’s double the number of registered voters in Nairobi.
In a TED talk held in May 2022, Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter for $44 billion dollars. He stated that his intentions were not for economic gain or to monopolize ownership of the company but to create an inclusive arena for free speech, within the bounds of the law. Additionally, he stated that Twitter’s algorithm and code should be open source so that there’s no behind-the-scenes manipulation either through AI or manually.
Later that month, Twitter’s stock dropped by 25% when Musk tweeted that the “deal was on hold” citing concerns about the bots on the platform. So, he initially said that he was drawn to buying Twitter so he could “fix” the algorithm but then wants to back out because of the bots? Sounds a tad contradictory.
On 8th July 2022, he caused an uproar on the internet after he announced that he had withdrawn his bid to buy Twitter. Walking away from the deal is apparently not that straightforward. “The Twitter board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” said Bret Taylor, the chair of the board at Twitter.
This was confirmed when Twitter sued Musk on 12th July 2022, obliging the billionaire to complete his $44 billion dollar acquisition of the company.
Friends, get ready for one of the longest legal battles between one of the world’s richest men and Twitter’s board.
When all is said and done
Analysts have compared Musk’s Twitter investment to buying 15 of the richest football clubs. 15! It begs the question, why Twitter? Why a social media app? Doesn’t this man have the resources, the infrastructure, and the influence (read minions) to create an app of his own, perhaps even one that can only be accessed by Martians?
I’m getting ahead of myself here but you get the point. After 238 hours of research, I still have lots of questions about this man, Elon Musk. Love him or hate him, he’s definitely one to look out for.
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