Hostile Takeovers and Poison Pills: The Week Elon Musk Came for Twitter

<p>Elon Musk’s attempts to buy Twitter have sent ripples through the social media platform. There is a story here about panic, the limited reach of social media, and the increasingly fuzzy nature of the private/ public space … but I think all that is a surface level analysis. For me, the more interesting story is the corporate what lies just underneath.</p><br><p>You see, Musk is the richest man not because he invented anything wonderful and world changing. No, he’s rich because he’s <em>good</em> at making money. He’s a businessman first and foremost. Through that lens, the story of the Twitter acquisition becomes one of shitposts and SEC filings, a bizarre fight between tech titans, a rehashing of old corporate techniques like “poison pills” and “hostile takeovers.”</p><br><p>On this episode of Cyber, we sit down with Motherboard features writer and editor Maxwell Strachan. He’s here to answer all your burning questions about Musk’s attempted Twitter takeover.</p><br><p>Stories discussed in this episode:</p><br><p><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/93bj77/twitter-loses-elon-musk-the-board-member-regains-elon-musk-the-shitposter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter Loses Elon Musk the Board Member, Regains Elon Musk the Shitposter</a></p><br><p><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgm3pk/twitter-and-elon-musk-are-now-at-war" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter and Elon Musk Are Now at War</a></p><br><p><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypq9q/we-spoke-to-an-old-school-corporate-raider-about-elon-musk-and-twitter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">We Spoke to an Old-School Corporate Raider About Elon Musk and Twitter</a></p><br><p><strong>We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week.</strong><a href="https://www.twitch.tv/motherboardtv/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong> Follow us</strong></a><strong> there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.</strong></p