Elon Musk’s deposition for the Twitter v. Musk swimsuit might have been rescheduled for subsequent week, however the public obtained some extra inside dust about his plans for Twitter, because of the discharge of two slideshow shows and a slew of Musk texts.
The texts present Musk and quite a lot of contacts — together with former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, and podcaster Joe Rogan — speaking about all the things from the blockchain to placing Oprah on Twitter’s board. (That half is perhaps a joke, however with Musk, it’s tough to inform.) However above all, they’re a chronicle of the deal’s gradual implosion.
Twitter “by no means ought to have been an organization.”
The texts are gentle studying, and you may examine them out right here when you’re so inclined. They’re principally divided into two sections: a giddy feeding frenzy round Musk buying Twitter and a protracted venting session because the acquisition went south.
The primary key part begins a few month earlier than Musk’s $44 billion provide to purchase Twitter. In March of 2022, Jack Dorsey reaches out about one of Musk’s tweets, a part of a thread complaining a few lack of free speech on Twitter. “A brand new platform is required. It might probably’t be an organization. This is the reason I left,” Dorsey says. He tries to promote Musk on a brand new decentralized communication protocol, saying Twitter “by no means ought to have been an organization.” Musk kind of agrees, however with a caveat: “I believe it’s value each attempting to maneuver Twitter in a greater path and doing one thing new.”
Dorsey expresses doubts about this, however when Musk buys a considerable share in Twitter, Dorsey is extraordinarily on board. “I’ve needed it for a very long time. Bought very emotional after I realized it was lastly attainable,” he texts after an preliminary announcement that Musk is getting appointed. He’s equally keen about Musk assembly present CEO Parag Agrawal: “Parag is an unbelievable engineer.”
Threaded by means of numerous textual content message subplots (Kimbal Musk actually desires to speak with Elon about Web3), one theme stands out: as Twitter’s previous CEO pushed to convey Twitter and Musk collectively, Musk’s endurance with its new one frayed virtually instantly. Musk and Dorsey are on the identical high-minded wavelength. In the meantime, Agrawal comes off as, properly, a present government and former nuts-and-bolts engineer at a really giant firm that’s about to take a giant threat.
“Twitter CEO is my dream job.”
This isn’t instantly a difficulty. “I simply need Twitter to be most wonderful,” Musk gushes in an early dialog after his funding, touting his experience in “heavy responsibility software program.” Agrawal tries gamely to perform a little coder-to-coder bonding: “I was CTO and have been in our codebase for a very long time … deal with me like an engineer as a substitute of CEO and let’s see the place we get to.”
However two days later, Agrawal makes a pivotal mistake: he asks Musk to cease tweeting. “You might be free to tweet ‘is Twitter dying?’ or the rest about Twitter — but it surely’s my duty to inform you that it’s not serving to me make Twitter higher within the present context,” Agrawal texts on April ninth. “I’d like the corporate to get to a spot the place we’re extra resilient and don’t get distracted, bu we aren’t there proper now.” Two minutes later, Musk declares becoming a member of the board “a waste of time” and says he’ll provide to take Twitter non-public. (Over within the Web3 B-plot, he’s concurrently texting Kimbal about methods to begin a paid blockchain social community.)
“Fixing Twitter by chatting with Parag gained’t work,” he tells Twitter board chair Bret Taylor tersely. “Drastic motion is required.”
(In the meantime, in an ongoing C-plot that’s by far essentially the most entertaining a part of these textual content messages, Jason Calacanis affords Musk a continuing stream of thirsty ideas that embody elevating his provide worth, transferring Twitter’s headquarters to the Gigafactory in Texas, and bringing YouTube creator MrBeast onto Twitter to win over Zoomers and Millennials. Additionally, Calacanis is ride-or-die for Musk, will bounce on a grenade for him, and tells Musk, amongst different issues, “You have got my sword,” and “Twitter CEO is my dream job.”)
“Parag is simply transferring far too slowly and attempting to please individuals who won’t be blissful it doesn’t matter what he does.”
Dorsey is totally on board with the acquisition — “I gained’t let this fail and can do no matter it takes. It’s too essential to humanity,” he pledges. (Again within the B-plot once more, Musk is texting Boring Firm CEO Steve Davis about “a blockchain-based model of Twitter” the place customers pay in Dogecoin, then fortunately concluding that “blockchain Twitter isn’t attainable.”) And Dorsey tries to clean issues over with Musk and Agrawal: “He’s actually nice at getting issues finished when tasked with particular path,” Dorsey tells him.
Musk is just not into this. “Parag is simply transferring far too slowly and attempting to please individuals who won’t be blissful it doesn’t matter what he does,” he says. Dorsey diplomatically takes the glass as half-full, saying that “at the very least it turned clear that you would be able to’t work collectively.” Nevertheless it’s the final message we get from him — whereas Musk texts Rupert Murdoch heirs Kathryn and James to say he’s too busy together with his crypto startup to rejoin Twitter.
And this all occurs whereas Musk remains to be principally excited about shopping for Twitter. (This part ends completely with enterprise capitalist Steve Jurvetson suggesting that Musk rent his son to run operations — once more, a feeding frenzy.) Soar into Could, and he’s complaining to banker Michael Grimes about Twitter having “requested no good questions and had no good feedback” at a gathering, instantly earlier than asking to gradual the deal down in case of World Warfare III and guessing that fewer than half of Twitter’s customers are actual.
There was loads of apparent public friction between Musk and Agrawal, and Dorsey’s assist for the acquisition was often known as properly. However primarily based on the string of textual content messages right here, it’s hanging simply how rapidly issues with Agrawal go south and the way little Dorsey manages to promote Musk on any of this being a good suggestion — one thing Musk appears to begin doubting almost the minute he strikes his cut price.