Elon Musk Too Ambitious to Buy Twitter

On April 25th (Japan time), shocking news traveled around the world.

Elon Musk, 50, the founder of SpaceX, a private space exploration company, and Tesla, an electric car manufacturer, acquired Twitter. The acquisition was worth a whopping 5.6 trillion yen. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, after which Twitter will become a private company. Mr. Mask, an avid user of Twitter with 87 million followers, has long been an outspoken critic of Twitter for undermining freedom of speech. After the acquisition, drastic reforms are expected to take place.

Why did Mr. Musk initiate the acquisition at this time? International journalist Toshihiro Yamada answers.

 The main reason is that Jack Dorsey, 45, founder of Twitter, stepped down as CEO in November ’21. Mr. Musk was such a big fan of his that he tweeted, ‘Dorsey is a great and nice guy. But Dorsey was under constant pressure from shareholders during his time as CEO to make more profit. With his departure, the founders lost influence, and there was concern that profit-seeking shareholders would use Twitter to make money. Mr. Musk began working toward a takeover in January of this year, saying, ‘That would not guarantee freedom of speech.’

Mr. Musk, the world’s most powerful businessman with an estimated asset of 27 trillion yen, is not only interested in guaranteeing freedom of speech but is also concerned about the possibility of using Twitter to make money. Mr. Yamada continues.

 Mr. Musk is promoting the private sector use of Starlink, a satellite system developed by SpaceX that enables low-cost, high-performance internet access. Mr. Musk is targeting Africa, where there is no internet access. Africa is a country where the environment is not yet internet-ready, but there are excellent developers and system engineers, and the population is growing rapidly. As the internet becomes connected via Starlink, the number of Twitter users will also increase. I think they are trying to gather users, siphon off their private data, and do some advertising business.

As Starlink expands, self-driving cars that require internet connectivity will close to becoming a reality. If this happens, the global market share of Tesla’s electric vehicles will jump dramatically. Musk is trying to develop a business that combines SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter.

Musk’s acquisition of Twitter will also have a profound impact on the U.S. political world.

The acquisition will guarantee freedom of speech and make Twitter a more open platform. The criteria for freezing accounts will be made public, and regulations may be relaxed. If that happens, former U.S. President Donald Trump, 75, may have his account unfrozen. I have a feeling that Trump will be back, as he is not yet ready for Twitter. Right now, President Biden’s Democratic Party is very weak, and I think they will lose the midterm elections in November. If Mr. Trump starts making noise on Twitter again, it will have a great impact on the presidential election in 2024.

The world is about to undergo a major transformation under the leadership of Mr. Musk.