Twitter’s down. Checkmate, Musk

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It’s not simply you. Twitter appears to be down for everybody, judging by DownDetector:

… and by fallback microblogging companies akin to Reddit:

What seems to be a serious international outage is offering a well timed reminder of arguments round Twitter’s public utility standing, and whether or not it ought to be shielded from the petulance of erratic billionaires. As Matt Levine wrote on Wednesday:

Back in May, not less than some folks thought that Elon Musk could be good for Twitter as a product, an organization, a city sq.. Now he’s on a really public mission to destroy Twitter, eliminate workers, drive away advertisers and spark regulatory investigations. He needs to “trash the company” and “disrupt its operations,” as Twitter’s personal legal professionals say, as they demand that he purchase the corporate. Seems like a nasty man to personal the corporate! 

As a matter of shareholder worth, Twitter’s efforts listed here are unassailable: If Musk is hellbent on destroying Twitter, he ought to actually pay its present shareholders $54.20 per share in money first. But for those who consider Twitter as one thing apart from a pot of money for shareholders — for those who care about its workers or its customers or its public mission — then the final thing you’ll need could be for this man to personal it.

Investment retailers together with Rosenblatt and Hindenburg have been arguing in current days that Musk has performed a dumb recreation very badly, which has handed negotiating energy to Twitter. The base case now could be for a settlement that may compensate shareholders over and above the deal’s $1bn break payment.

Reaching a settlement requires Twitter to threaten convincingly that it’s ready to shut the deal, even when it means killing the corporate. Threats of webicide to public property are Musk’s solely actual supply of leverage at this level. But since Twitter seems completely able to knocking itself offline by way of its personal ineptitude, there’s no actual risk left in any respect.

Update 2pm BST: it’s again up now.

Source: www.ft.com