Elon Musk Offers To Buy Twitter For $43 Billion | The Breakdown By My First Million
Elon, Twitter, Free Speech, and Billionaire Takeovers - April 14, 2022 (almost 3 years ago) • 42:25
Transcript:
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Chris Anderson | Okay, so you don't like to lose. If, in this case, you are not successful and the board does not accept your offer, you've said you won't go higher. Is there a plan B? There is.
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Sam Parr | Alright, we're live! Breaking edition. Sean just texted us and said we gotta do this Elon thing. It sounds like you've got a lot of opinions.
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Shaan Puri | I got some opinions. I definitely have some opinions for sure.
First, let's summarize what happened. Then, tell me how you initially heard about it and how you reacted when you first heard.
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Sam Parr | So, let's start from like... alright, so weeks, months, years ago, Elon has always criticized Twitter, saying how he loves it. I actually think he's one of the top 10 most followed accounts in the world. Of the top 10, he's one of the few that is actually actively posting as a normal person would.
He's criticized Twitter for banning free speech and things like that, for basically being too liberal. He didn't ever say that word, but that's kind of what he's getting at, right?
About 10 days ago, or a week ago, he bought 9% of the company. Then he announced that he was going to join the board of directors. The weekend after he announced that he was joining the board of directors, he started posting things like, "Let's turn Twitter's HQ into a homeless shelter."
I actually lived next door to Twitter's headquarters at 9th and Market a couple of years ago, and it's basically like no one's there because the pandemic shut down that area of the city. It's full of homeless people. He said, "Let's shut down Twitter HQ and turn it into a homeless shelter," he tweeted.
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Shaan Puri | he said because nobody's going to work anyways | |
Sam Parr | because yeah because nobody's going to work anyways | |
Shaan Puri | employees don't go anyways | |
Sam Parr | So, he took it. It was two jabs that he took. Then, he said, "Should we create an edit button? Yes or no?" He tweeted basically three or four things like that.
Then, on Sunday night—sorry, last Sunday night—he was supposed to join the board on Monday. He said, "I'm not joining the board." To a couple of people who are a little bit in the know of this kind of granular stuff, they said, "Well, the reason he's not joining the board is that when you join the board of a company like this, you can't own more than 14%."
So, by not joining the board, he can now buy the whole thing. And that happened on Monday. It's Thursday morning now.
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Shaan Puri | 1st, they were playing patty cake with each other. He's like, you know, the news comes out and then it's like the CEO of Twitter, Parag, is like, "Hey, so happy to have Elon Musk on our board. He's the best." Jack Dorsey says, "So glad to have Elon on our board." Elon says, "So glad to be on the board, Jack."
You know, they're all playing patty cake. And then one day later, or two days later, something like that, it becomes he's actually not joining the board. He basically goes hostile.
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Sam Parr | And now, at 6 AM or 7 AM this morning, it was announced that he was going to buy Twitter right away after he bought 9% of the company. I think the stock jumped 10% the day he did it.
But its current valuation was like $43 billion, and I think he offered to buy it at $53 billion, give or take. I forget the exact amount, but it was a nice premium—not a huge premium, but a nice premium.
And here we are now, waiting for what's going to happen next. By the way, I think Jack Dorsey, I do actually think he was somewhat genuine. I think the CEO of Twitter was not genuine. That guy doesn't even tweet! He's not even a user. Have you ever read his tweets? He just tweets like screenshots of PDFs.
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Shaan Puri | He follows me, that's all I know. So, he's good in my books. Burag, you're the man! You have excellent taste in who you follow.
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Sam Parr | Well, he might be the man, but he's not like a power user of Twitter. I think I know how to use Twitter better than he does, you know what I mean?
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Shaan Puri | Yeah, for sure you do.
Okay, so he tweeted on January 20th, then February 16th, then March 3rd. You know, before that, November 30th. So, you know, he's guys tweeting bimonthly.
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Sam Parr | Yeah, so, like, whereas Elon actually gets it.
So anyway, that's where we are now. What's your take?
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Shaan Puri | So, I think there are a couple of different things. First, I want to just say, **baller move**. | |
Sam Parr | baller move | |
Shaan Puri | I've been on the record saying that I think Elon can be kind of cringey with some of the things he says in public. I think he's an amazing inventor. I think he's an amazing visionary and a force of nature, for sure.
However, I think he can be a bit cringey in the way he tries to present himself. For someone who's trying to be an "engineer's engineer," he sure does a lot to make himself seem cool. It just feels like he comes across as trying too hard to me.
But this was not just a move. I'm going to read you the letter. Have you read it?
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Sam Parr | yes I have it up letter is badass so badass | |
Shaan Puri | he he created an offer | |
Sam Parr | Dude, that's so funny that we both gravitate towards gore. I was going to say that's exactly what I was going to bring up—was the writing.
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Shaan Puri | it was and the writing is amazing I'm just gonna read it word for word so he | |
Sam Parr | goes yeah | |
Shaan Puri | So, this is part of his SEC filing. He goes, "I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe. I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy. However, since making my investment, I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.
As a result, I'm willing to buy 100% of Twitter at $52.40 to $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day I began investing and 38% over what I offered the day it was announced. My offer is my best and final offer. If it is not accepted, I will need to reconsider my position as a shareholder. Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it."
So that was the start, and then there's one final thing. He goes, "Best and final," and there are bullet points.
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Sam Parr | this is this is the goal this is a really goal | |
Shaan Puri | This is where he used to put his nuts on the table. He goes, "I am not playing the back and forth game. I have moved straight to the end. It is a high price, and your shareholders will love it."
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Sam Parr | that's the best slide your shareholders will love it | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, if the deal does not work, given that I do not have confidence in management, *Parag Sad* [referring to a person], nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I will need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
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Sam Parr | This is not a "which which." He says it's not a threat. It is entirely a... it's a threat.
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Shaan Puri | yeah biggest biggest threat I've | |
Sam Parr | Ever seen saying "this is not a threat" is like saying "I'm not trying to be racist," but... it's like, dude, what you're about to say is going to be racist.
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Shaan Puri | right don't take this the wrong way | |
Sam Parr | yeah you're gonna be you're about to be really freaking rude | |
Shaan Puri | You're about to get offended. He says, "This is not a threat; it is simply a good investment without changes that need to be made." Those changes won't happen without taking the company private.
But just the best line of all these is, "I have moved straight to the end." That's my new thing, dude! I have moved straight to the end. That is my new thing. Sean's new thing is, "I have moved straight to the end."
I'm just going to be using that left and right in negotiations. The next "Milk Road" is going to start with, "I have moved straight to the end." You know, when I talked to my wife tonight and she wasn't, you know, cuddling with the kid? No, I have moved straight to the end.
If I go in line somewhere, I'm going to stand at the end of the line and say, "I have moved straight to the end." That is my new thing. What a line!
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Sam Parr | It's good, man. How about the fact that he's so... when he says "send via text," is that literal? Does he mean that this is an email that was sent in text format and then there's voice format? Or is he saying this was a text message? What do you think?
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Shaan Puri |
Yeah, I don't know what that part was. It's like... the file, there's like a screenshot of it. It says like, "Oh, it's almost like he's like, 'Hey Siri, send this to the SEC. Send this to Jack in my address book.'" It's like, "Which Jack do you mean?"
So, I don't know what that part was. It sounded like that part was... I think he sent a message either to Jack or Brett Taylor, the chairman or whatever it said.
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Sam Parr | taylor the guy from salesforce yeah brett taylor | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, oh dude, I think he's the chairman of the board. Oh my gosh!
So, I think he sent it... I think it was to him, and it was saying, "Here's my offer letter. This will be public tomorrow."
So, I think he, you know, was giving a heads up to whoever.
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Sam Parr | I do not think this is gonna go through | |
Shaan Puri | and why do you think | |
Sam Parr | That I think that I... Okay, so there's this app called **Blind**. It's a very inside baseball app. Typically, you have to have an email at a large, prominent tech company to use it. I don't even have... I mean, maybe HubSpot has the ability to use it, but it's like Apple.
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Shaan Puri | all the time at twitch | |
Sam Parr | it's awesome so like amazon apple | |
Shaan Puri | It's just people talking shit, whining, and gossiping. But you can do it anonymously, and you have to be an employee of the company to be on there. So, you know, these are not just random people.
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Sam Parr | And they'll, like, it's... they basically will complain about stuff that they should be made fun of. Like, "I only make $450,000 a year. How am I able to survive in the SF?" Or, "What is everyone making right now? My salary is blank. Post your salary below."
I got some screenshots from the Twitter Blind, and the people who use Blind I do think are not representative of the normal employees. But they basically said that like 50% thought it was a good idea and 50% thought it was a bad idea.
The reason I don't think it's gonna go through is I do think that management and a large vocal subset of the Twitter employees are gonna throw a fit enough that it would make this hard to go through.
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Shaan Puri | but it's not the employees who get to decide I mean what what do you mean | |
Sam Parr | no I said the management I think management could could could cause such a | |
Shaan Puri | I don't know what they could do. This is... it's a... I think this is like a... I don't know the exact mechanics of these takeovers. You know, there are people much smarter than me about this stuff.
But this is something that basically the board has to decide. It's like a shareholder issue. If I'm a Twitter shareholder, the stock hasn't... like stocks have been basically a poor performer for like a decade. I used to own this like 10 years ago, and you know, the stock price has not been like this up into the right curve.
You're getting a... whatever, what is it? A premium versus today. So today's price is... it's now $45. He offered $54, so that's what? Like a 20-something percent premium. Don't do public math, but...
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Sam Parr | yeah but | |
Shaan Puri | You know, would you take that premium?
Also, I think one thing he said was he would try to retain as many private shareholders as possible. This means you wouldn't have to sell to be in favor of the vote of this going through. You could, like, keep your shares or whatever.
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Sam Parr | I think that there's... I've read enough finance books to know that there are all these crazy concepts, like the "poison pill," which frankly, I don't even understand a lot of. There are all these weird, "Art of War" type of strategies that you can employ.
I don't think it's as simple as just being the top bidder; there are all these strange factors at play.
Anyway, here's the thing about Twitter: do you know what its market cap is? As of today, it's $34 billion. Of course, we're currently experiencing a nice pullback in tech, so it was probably 30% higher a year ago. But right now, it's at $34 billion. Do you know what Snapchat's market cap is?
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Shaan Puri | 50 | |
Sam Parr | About 55. Here's the thing about Twitter: I believe they have way more users, and it's the center of culture right now. Maybe not the center, but it is a center of culture at the moment.
Their ad platform is **dog shit**; it's the worst ad platform among all the big players. If they could figure this out, they should be worth way more. The thing is, I don't think Elon gives a shit about ads. I think he's going to try and figure out a way to make money other than ads.
But Twitter's ad platform is really bad. So, I do think that this company, Twitter, is way undervalued and way under-monetized. They don't ever innovate, although lately they've done some cool stuff. But it's been like, you know, 5 to 10 years... 10 years, I think. | |
Shaan Puri | Right, yeah. And by the way, here are a couple of takes on the situation.
So, Mark Cuban came out and he was like, "I think Elon is effing with the SEC." He goes, "His filing with the SEC allows him to say he wants to take a company private for $54.20," which is like, you know, before he used to... the SEC fined him like crazy because he said, "I'm considering taking Tesla private for $420, funding secured."
Now, he gets to do it the official way and just put a 5 in front of the 420. He had bought the shares a couple of months ago. This news of him buying and now the potential takeover drives shares up.
Let's say they don't accept his offer. Well, then he already said, "I'm going to sell my shares if you don't take my offer." So, he's just going to make a huge profit off of these shares, right? Like, he's going to make, you know, I don't know, whatever. I think he bought the shares for $3 billion. If he sells it for, you know, like whatever, a 20-30% gain, he might make up close to $1 billion off of just effing with Twitter. And he gets all the fame.
Remember we were talking about our friend Alex from Morning Brew? He was talking about buying public golf courses, and we were like, "This is the optimal spot." You said, "The announcement, you get all the praise. You don't have to actually do it."
Yeah, like, you know, check, get the picture with the check, and post it on Instagram. Don't actually give yourself all the headache and the work of running and owning that business. So, Elon is in that perfect spot right now.
So, that's one take on it. Other takes... you know, some people, you know, like crypto Twitter basically. So, there's this... do you follow this account, Punk 6529?
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Sam Parr | no but I I think I know who he is I'm actually gonna click file now what is it punk what | |
Shaan Puri | So, Punk 6529. This guy's one of the best Twitter accounts to follow. He sort of posts these thought leader-type things about crypto.
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Sam Parr | I know this guy he's great | |
Shaan Puri | He's great, and I think in a very short amount of time, like a couple of months, he's built, you know, 320,000 followers now because he's had really good takes on things like this.
He said something like, "You know, Twitter should be a protocol. It's a short messaging protocol, and it doesn't need to be owned by a single company." He also mentioned, "If you're excited about Elon taking over Twitter or upset about Elon taking over Twitter, both of these are the exact same problem. Our global short messaging internet protocol should be completely unaffected by who's the CEO of some random company in California."
In that same spirit, let's talk about what a future protocol like this could be. I think that's one of the key points. It's not necessarily what's going to happen here, but I think it is important to note that no one company owns email, for example.
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Sam Parr | right | |
Shaan Puri | But, like, which is a protocol for sending messages that are long-form? One company does own the Twitter protocol, and because of that, you know, you can't just choose.
If this was a protocol, you could say, "I want to use the client that has no algorithm." Or, "I want to use the one that has a really tight algorithm and shows me nothing—no right-wing stuff."
You would be able to have way more choice as a consumer, and way more companies would be able to innovate and build on top of Twitter if it was a protocol, not a single company. So, kind of his plan was like, it doesn't matter who's in charge.
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Sam Parr | I don't even think that's logistically possible at this. Though or is it | |
Shaan Puri | not really for twitter it's like almost like it's easier for the next thing | |
Sam Parr | yeah right that's what I mean | |
Shaan Puri | Jack Dorsey has said there's a project called **Blue Sky**, which is the idea of turning Twitter into a decentralized protocol. But, like, who knows how realistic that is and how much of that is just, you know, lip service? We're working on it, and like, you know, check in in five years and see how it goes.
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Sam Parr | Let's talk about this angle here, which is actually maybe the most interesting: the best troll ever.
So, like, this guy's like a child. Some of it's not funny, but this one is very funny. I actually think, and I think Paul Graham said something like this, I'm not convinced that this would be good for Twitter. However, I think there's definitely a possibility that it could be good for Twitter.
But I think there's a certainty that this is horrible for Elon Musk. Consistently, the guy makes decisions that are funny and cool, leaving people shocked that they did that. But it's kind of like eating an entire orange, including the peel. It's really funny and hilarious that you actually did it, and we're going to laugh about it forever.
But I'm shocked that I knew a guy in college who ate an entire orange and an entire lemon one time in one sitting, including the peel. I'm like, "That's hilarious that you've done that! I have a story for now forever." But that's going to suck for you for a while.
So, that's kind of like what this is like. This is going to be bad for Elon for a long time. This is not going to make his life more fun; this is going to make his life significantly worse and significantly harder. So much more pressure. This is not a smart move for his personal life.
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Shaan Puri | Well, the situation right now is brilliant because what does this say about Elon? This says, number one, "I'm super rich; I could just buy Twitter." How about that?
Somebody tweeted out, "Elon said, okay, you don’t want me on your board? Okay, I won’t have a board seat; I’ll have all the board seats." So, that’s one piece, which is like, in case you forgot, I’m way richer than all of you.
The second thing is, why are you doing this, Elon? Do you just want to own it and have more power? Think about when Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post. What are these billionaires trying to do? They’re trying to control us.
Elon’s stance is that these tech companies are messing things up, which is already the belief of a lot of people: that these tech companies have too much power and control. They’re shaping the narrative and they’re not promoting free speech.
So, he came out saying, "I’m doing this for free speech." It’s like, how are you going to argue against free speech, right? You know, raise your hand if you’re against free speech.
He virtue-signaled free speech on top of it. He did it in a bold and baller way, which is going to give him way more attention and fame, and a bunch of reasons why people would talk about him. He’s going to make money from it, you know, just by buying the shares beforehand, creating all this ruckus, and then being able to sell out if he says, "Oh, well, I didn’t get it."
So, I think he can be the underdog, saying, "Yeah, you know, the powers that be wouldn’t let me do what I wanted to do. I was going to make this awesome, but they wouldn’t let me. They tried to squash me."
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Sam Parr | Dude, how about the fact that we just did an episode where we recapped the Milk Road?
Peter Thiel had this outlandish headline, which it might be true. No, I actually don't think so. I think he was joking a little bit when he said, "Warren Buffett's a sociopath."
He went on to list all the reasons why Warren Buffett, who is called...
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Shaan Puri | him hold on he called him the sociopathic grandpa in omaha | |
Sam Parr | Yes, who? But like Warren Buffett, his stereotype—and it's probably actually not true—is that he's this nice old man who just says, "Oh shucks, I just happen to do it, whatever."
And then Peter Thiel is this evil guy who calls this old grandpa a sociopath. Then you've got Elon, who does the craziest stuff on earth.
Imagine these guys when they were 25 or 30 years old. They had a little something, but maybe not that much. What type of fun would it have been to be in the same room with these... well, these "fucking shitheads"?
It's like the perfect combination of being capable enough to pull it off and crazy enough to think it's funny. I can't imagine being around these guys when they were younger.
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Shaan Puri | Yeah, exactly. Ben, pull this tweet up. So, he's at Elon right now as we're talking. He's at TED and...
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Sam Parr | you know who's there is our boys and our boys | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, Andrew Jack is at TED right now. He was there to talk about whatever—SpaceX, Tesla, whatever.
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Sam Parr | dude but of course that | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, of course. You know, it's a 30-minute talk about Twitter.
So, Ben, can you pull this link up in the screen share? We should watch this. This is Elon Musk talking about his plan B if the deal doesn't go through for Twitter.
I haven't watched this video because it just got tweeted out just now. So, I want to hear it. I want to live react to whatever he says here. 30 seconds.
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Sam Parr | Do you... while Ben's finding that clip, pull it up, Ben.
But while Ben's finding that clip, do you think... so, like, I don't buy nice stuff, but let's say I see a car that I like and it's $50,000. I'm like, "Yeah, I'm just gonna buy it, and I'll figure out how to insure it and where I'm gonna store it after."
It's kind of a big deal because it's a $50,000 thing, but it's not gonna kill me. Do you think that Elon is thinking about it like I would think about a $50,000 car? Or is this... like, how well thought out do you think this is?
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Shaan Puri | Well, let's look at this. So, Elon Musk's net worth right now is $265 billion, I think.
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Sam Parr | Yeah, but he can't. I don't think that... I don't think that is entirely true in a sense of net worth. He definitely has a lot of debt because he's got to sell. I mean, it's not like that is liquid, I would think.
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Shaan Puri | So, even if we don't know all the details and we don't know his entire personal financial situation, let's just take the high-level numbers for a second. That's, I think, roughly 20% of his net worth that he would be putting into this.
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Sam Parr | that's a lot | |
Shaan Puri | you're worth $10,000,000 as you buying a $2,000,000 asset right | |
Sam Parr | The difference is that you only have $8,000,000 if you're worth $10,000,000 left, which is a lot. But like, you're not going to go and buy a bunch more $2,000,000 things with Elon. You still have $70,000,000 or $50,000,000 or $1,000,000,000. | |
Shaan Puri | yeah yeah you have whatever like 200,000,000,000 to fall back on at the | |
Sam Parr | end of | |
Shaan Puri | the day | |
Sam Parr | whatever it is | |
Shaan Puri | We have this script. I want to see what he says. I don't know if this is going to be good because it just happened just now. But then, let's play this and I want to hear it.
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Sam Parr | The truth matters to me a lot. It really, like, sort of pathologically, matters to me.
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Chris Anderson |
Okay, so you don't like to lose. If in this case you are not successful, if the board does not accept your offer... You've said you won't go higher. Is there a Plan B?
There is. I think we... I think we would like to hear a little bit about Plan B.
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Sam Parr | for for another time I think | |
Chris Anderson | Another time, yeah. Alright, I... that's a nice tease. Alright, so.
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Shaan Puri | That's great, Matt. Well played, well played. In that case, I don't know what plan B could be, right? Like launching his own thing? I think it's probably... I don't know.
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Sam Parr | I don't think that would be a good plan. Twitter is really hard. You know, like how many people say they're going to create a social media product? How many people try, and how many have worked? A lot try. Everyone tries when they first start, and there's like three.
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Shaan Puri | right | |
Sam Parr | Right. TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. You know what I mean? There's three.
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Shaan Puri | yeah I I I do think it would be very very hard this would be much better to buy the existing asset | |
Sam Parr | but how's trump's things doing what's it do you know what's the I mean it's like horrible right | |
Shaan Puri | I downloaded it because I was like, "I gotta see what's going on with this thing." But I haven't spent too much time on it. It was crashing like crazy on the first day, so...
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Sam Parr | yeah so I I | |
Shaan Puri | social | |
Sam Parr | I don't think building it is possible | |
Shaan Puri | That's the plan B. Maybe he's going to be like, "Hey everybody, Truth Social, that's what we're going, right?" Because then you get the Trump stans and the Elon stans together. That's a lot of people who are devoted followers of those two. The problem is they hate each other. Also, Elon doesn't care about making conservatives happy; he cares.
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Sam Parr | About trolling. So, if you only have your own audience on there, it wouldn't be very fun.
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Shaan Puri | right | |
Sam Parr | You know what I mean? He doesn't like getting people cheering. He likes pissing people off or ruffling feathers.
And the thing about the truth, I think that's rooted in his father lying to him. So, Elon's dad... so listen.
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Shaan Puri | you went you went there daddy issues is it I it all comes back to daddy issues | |
Sam Parr | Everything... I think not everything, but most things in life are genetics. Then the other half is things that happen to you from ages 0 to 4. I think that's really... I've been someone well.
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Shaan Puri | 4 is young what what what what was he lied to between 2 and 10 how would we even know | |
Sam Parr | Maybe 10, but I do think things happen when you're 23. It actually impacts you.
But let's go up to 10. I think that he's had a troubled relationship with his dad. His dad just wasn't around. I have a feeling there's a world where his dad was like, "I promise I'll be at this game. I promise I'll do this," or, you know, "I'm working on this huge business deal."
And it turns out he's like unemployed, or he doesn't show up to the game. I think that there's something like that that has happened. He's obsessive-compulsive about the truth. I actually do believe him when he says "truth."
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Shaan Puri | what did his dad wait sorry what did his dad line up | |
Sam Parr | I just made that up I don't know but I know that his dad | |
Shaan Puri | his dad his dad he came in strong | |
Sam Parr | Well, no, his dad wasn't around. His dad left, and he wasn't very present in his life. I think he was kind of rude to his family. I'm just guessing, but there's a world where he was just kind of an asshole, messing around and not doing what he should.
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Shaan Puri | For sure, for sure. The things that you value come from your experiences. Like, you know, people who value authenticity do so because they've dealt with inauthenticity. People who value family typically have had either great experiences with family or terrible experiences, and they want to rectify it, right?
So, you are definitely shaped by that. If he's telling us, you know, "I'm sort of like..." I don't even know what he said, like "maniacally" or whatever he said, you know, "maniacal about the truth."
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Sam Parr | I think he said... I think he said he was obsessive. I think he said something like, "It's almost a problem that he goes, 'I don't care about the truth.'"
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Shaan Puri | And like, you know, okay, some percentage of that is just, again, virtue signaling. But, you know, let's take him at his word for it.
Let's be clear: what does he think is happening? So, you know, like, what is untrue? There’s this belief that, you know, free speech is cool. People are going to be able to say anything, but those are not necessarily going to be true, right?
It's just this belief that the answer to bad speech is more speech, not censorship. So, you know, I get that, but I'm not sure really what his ideas are. Right? Like, if you look at the list of ideas... I forgot what I saw. This screenshot of Elon’s Twitter ideas. Let me see if I could find this real quick.
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Sam Parr | I don't even... I think that, like, I'm not well-versed in the political scene of Twitter. I understand why people want free speech. Obviously, I know the Donald Trump example, and that's just an example everyone hangs on.
I don't know tons of other examples. One of them being this Hunter Biden story, which I don't even remember what the story was. But I know the New York Observer, which is a conservative paper in New York, said Hunter Biden... I think it involved prostitutes and being a drug addict. They published it, and Twitter suspended them.
It turns out, a year and a half or two years later, it was true. The New York Times wrote a very similar story saying the same things happened. They posted it, and they weren't banned. I think that there's a handful of examples like that that people are pissed off about. But I'm not sure if it's, like, rampant.
One could argue it is rampant if the most popular... if the president can't use Twitter.
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Shaan Puri | Yeah, I think that's probably like the strongest example. Hold on, okay, so I'm just gonna read this out loud real quick.
Alright, here, let me read something. Here's a list of what Elon has tweeted since he announced what he was gonna do and before he left the board.
The first tweet was, "Vote to remove the 'w' from Twitter," so just "Titter." His poll options were "Yes" and "Of course."
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Sam Parr | god that's so stupid that's that's that's kind of a cringe joke | |
Shaan Puri | Exactly.
1. Turn proposal number 2: Turn HQ into a homeless shelter.
2. Number 3: Eliminate ad revenue.
3. Number 4: Just say that Twitter is dying.
4. Number 5: Overhaul the blue check mark policy.
5. Number 6: [additional context needed].
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Sam Parr | bored with that I totally apologize | |
Shaan Puri | he said he was gonna smoke weed at the next board meeting | |
Sam Parr | oh my god he posted | |
Shaan Puri | A meme of him smoking weed at Joe Rogan.
At the next board meeting, the next idea was an edit button. Then just put this in quotes: "Free speech." There was no idea of how, or why, or what, you know? Just "free speech."
The last one was the open-source Twitter algorithm. So, you know, people were like, "Elon's gonna save Twitter." It's like, well, if you pay attention to the ideas that he had, they were not the most earth-shattering ideas.
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Sam Parr | well our our | |
Shaan Puri | tinder homeless shelter you know quote unquote free speech but you know what what were these ideas | |
Sam Parr | Our friend Nikita, who seems like he knows what he's talking about with some consumer apps, was like, "I'll... you know, maybe I like Elon, maybe I don't, but running a car company and creating PayPal and a solar business is a lot different than the kind of art that it takes to create a consumer tech product like Twitter."
I totally agree with that. You know, think about this: when someone says, "Well, we're going to create this thing that you can only write 140 characters," 9 out of 10 normal people would be like, "What? F that! Let's make it so I can write as much as I want," or "Let's just make it so anyone can edit it and do all this other stuff."
But they're like, "No, no, no, we're going to do this weird thing." It's kind of like Vine; you only have 4 seconds to make a video. Four seconds? No one can do that! It's like, "No, it's actually... it creates a whole art out of it." You know what I mean?
So, I think Twitter will... or Elon could potentially be a little bit too rational and logical to create the magic of Twitter.
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Shaan Puri | So, I have the complete opposite take. I think if the guy can land a rocket on its butt in the middle of the ocean and he can make electric cars that are awesome, I'm pretty sure he could, you know, figure out the social media thing. Now, the problem is he's still doing those other things, so...
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Sam Parr | like fucking albert einstein ain't gonna create youtube you know what I mean like he's | |
Shaan Puri | Not gonna lie, he doesn't need to create it. He's just a leader and he's a first principles thinker. You know, like, who do I have more faith in: Parag or Elon? I have more faith in Elon than I do in Parag.
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Sam Parr | well yeah but that guy ain't running that guy's running it he ain't he's | |
Shaan Puri | gonna be the ceo | |
Sam Parr | he's just making sure that the train show up on time he's not building the train | |
Shaan Puri | Well, that's the problem, right? Like, you know, that's why it's plateaued. User growth was like 300 million monthly active users, like, whatever, 5 years ago. Now it's like 3.40. It hasn't grown much at all.
Plus, you know, there are other problems like hate, scams, and other stuff. So my take is that this is the ultimate example of social media ruining everything.
Think about in your and my day. Like, I know for me, how much time and productivity from useful, awesome activities I could be doing instead of just checking Twitter about TikTok and whatever. You know, social media is this distraction, a time suck.
It's like, damn, this guy's trying to make us multi-planetary and create self-driving cars and get us off of fossil fuels, and he's getting distracted by social media. He's just doing it at the biggest scale.
Like, not just using social media, he's like, "I'm gonna buy it, and then I'm gonna have to fix it." And it's like, dude, no, no, no. Just do the thing where you help us go to Mars and have self-driving cars that are electric. Those are the useful things. Solving social media is just another distraction, just done at Elon scale. | |
Sam Parr | if he dies in the next 5 years would you be surprised | |
Shaan Puri | I would not be surprised | |
Sam Parr | I would not be surprised either. Do you think that would be the way that this story has to end? | |
Shaan Puri | No, I don't think he's gonna die. I would say there's a low probability of that. However, I do think that it would turn him into like the greatest cult hero ever. | |
Sam Parr | Well, it's kind of like, you know, everyone talks about Tupac. I've got Tupac in my background here; I love Tupac. You know, he died when he was 25. He was only 25, and people talk about this guy being like... stop.
A lot of people don't know that Biggie was 24, okay? And so people are like, "Oh, they're the best rappers ever." I'm like, well, they didn't really have that long of a career.
Jay-Z and Eminem have done it for like, you know, 20 years now, so they definitely have. But the reason we say he's the best ever is because he died young, and it was like, "Oh, all the potential."
So in some way, I'm like, that's... Elon could do the same. He should go out on top; maybe then we'll remember him as being the best.
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Shaan Puri | I mean would you wanna die and be the tupac of newsletters or what | |
Sam Parr | No, I wouldn't want to. But I'm not Elon, you know? There are two things I know in this world: first, there are crazy guys in the world like Elon, and second, I'm not one of them. That's what I know. There are weirdos like him, and I ain't it.
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Shaan Puri | we we should end it on that | |
Ben Wilson | Just to reiterate your angle, Sam. You're of the opinion that Elon has daddy issues and you hope he dies. Is that correct? | |
Sam Parr | To the first... 100% he has daddy issues. Yeah, show me a successful person, and I'm going to show you a messed up dad for sure, without a doubt.
Okay, the second thing: do I hope he dies? 100% no. Do I think it will be an even better part of the story? Yes. Unless he has some kind of weird Howard Hughes thing, where it becomes even more of a mystery, then yeah, I'm on board with that.
But if he just gets old and starts pinging himself and dies, I'm like, "Fuck! He can't go out that way."
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Shaan Puri | Yeah, yeah, that's actually a better question. What’s the right way for Elon to go? You know, like a heart attack? Nah, just he was overworked and stressed. Nah, that’s for the common man. | |
Sam Parr | well dying on mars like crashing exactly that that's a great way | |
Shaan Puri | He's gotta be the guy who goes to Mars, dies in the process, taking mankind farther than they've ever gone before. That's gotta be the way he goes. He just drifts out of space.
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Sam Parr | Or he just disappears, and no one knows where he is. He lives in a trailer in rural [location]. | |
Shaan Puri | Has to go. When he goes out, he has to say he's Satoshi Nakamoto. Also, that's the smartest move he could make. If I'm his PR team, I'm like, "Listen, Elon, before you go, we need to claim the Satoshi thing." That's just the cherry on top of your legacy. If you were Satoshi, there's no way to disprove it if you're going to go anyway.
So, that's the last little thing he should do on his to-do list or bucket list before he kicks it.
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Sam Parr | dude this is awesome alright that was a good where | |
Shaan Puri | I thought we would end it with him dying | |
Sam Parr | but that's a that's a good impromptu episode I think ben what do you think | |
Ben Wilson | I loved it! I think it's a bad investment, but I believe Elon is having fun. If you had as much money as he does, why would you not spend your time just having fun? I think he's having fun.
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Sam Parr | I don't think he's having fun I that is a lot | |
Ben Wilson | you think this is a strategy | |
Sam Parr | I think that he's kind of playing the role of a court jester. He's laughing on the outside, and it appears to be fun. Everyone's laughing with him, but also he's crying on the inside. I do not think that his life is enjoyable in any sense of the word. I don't either, but...
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Ben Wilson | I think he's getting enjoyment from this probably | |
Sam Parr | Yeah, like it's a... I think it's our version of when you tweet something funny or I tweet something funny. I also am like, "Giggity!" I'm like, "Quagmire from Family Guy, like giggity, that's hilarious!" But it doesn't... it's not like I'm happy three days later from that and feel content.
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Shaan Puri | Right, right, right. Yeah, you're saying he doesn't come across as a content, happy person, and that he has said in many interviews to that extent. You know, things like, "You wouldn't want to be me." That's not what a very happy, content person says. Okay, great.
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Sam Parr | or I will find death as a relief right | |
Shaan Puri | So, those are pretty strong statements. You don't have to read between the lines there.
But, to Ben's point, I do think that he gets off on being, you know, the class clown. The guy who gives the middle finger to the system, right? He's taking "F you" money and he's saying "F you."
So, you know, he is enjoying, I think, the stunt aspect of it. I don't think he's doing it as an economic investment.
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Sam Parr | for sure | |
Shaan Puri | I think he's doing it as a combination of maybe 20% publicity stunt and maybe 80% mission. And maybe I'm wrong on those sliders; maybe it's more like 50/50 or, you know, 80/20 the other way. I'm not sure. I think it's 80% mission and 20% stunt, not an economic investment. | |
Ben Wilson | but I do think it's | |
Shaan Puri | economic as we say on the on the on the Microsoft million podcast | |
Ben Wilson | Yeah, we're big on being post-economic, late-stage capitalism. That's what we're known for. But I do think, like, you look at Jeff Bezos who bought the Washington Post.
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Sam Parr | I don't know he paid like a | |
Ben Wilson | 1,000,000,000 for washington post | |
Shaan Puri | or something like that | |
Sam Parr | I think he paid 200 $1,000,000 to you | |
Ben Wilson | 200,000,000. Okay, 200,000,000. Nothing. But at the same time, he got nothing. Like, the Washington Post gives you a voice, I guess, but you don't even have full editorial control.
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Sam Parr | like could if you wanted to but | |
Ben Wilson | he could if you | |
Shaan Puri | I wanted to... I think what he got is a little different. At the time, that was seen as a cool power move. We all know about that, so it did work in that sense.
The second thing he got was something many rich guys have: just vanity. You know, "Oh yeah, I own this. I own this farm. I own this basketball team. I own these things." You've heard of that. There is a sort of rich guy toy chest thing. | |
Ben Wilson | I agree, it's like owning a sports team. It's like a journalism sports team.
But I think, from the functionality standpoint of actually being able to have a voice, buying Twitter is sort of the same thing. He's getting the only voice that matters. He's getting the only thing that can actually drive and change public opinion if he wanted to pull that move.
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Shaan Puri | how much is like cnn | |
Ben Wilson | good question what | |
Shaan Puri | what's the parent company | |
Sam Parr | Well, I think they just merged. Did they? Maybe between $5 billion and $10 billion, I would guess. Yeah, look up the news.
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Shaan Puri | for your buck look | |
Sam Parr | But News Corp, which is the one... So basically, Rupert Murdoch started Fox. He started this one company that recently had to separate because it was a monopoly on news. Those two companies became News Corp, which basically owns Fox News and Fox News affiliates, and then 21st Century Fox, which is like the movies and TV shows. Collectively, that value is like, I think, $100 billion. | |
Shaan Puri | no no no | |
Sam Parr | or 50 | |
Shaan Puri | 13,000,000,000 | |
Sam Parr | both of them combined no | |
Shaan Puri | maybe I don't have the second one | |
Sam Parr | what's news corp news corp | |
Shaan Puri | class a is 13,000,000,000 | |
Sam Parr | That's the least valuable or the lesser of the two. What's the more valuable one? Fox 21st Century, I think that's what it's called.
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Shaan Puri | I don't know, dude. I think this is the one: Fox Corporation.
Okay, I don't know if this is the right Fox, but Fox Corporation... $30,000,000,000.
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Sam Parr | yeah that's it that's it so fit 43 total | |
Shaan Puri | yeah yeah this is the right one | |
Sam Parr | And they're way more popular than CNN. So, yeah, CNN can't be that expensive, but who the heck wants to own CNN?
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Shaan Puri | these dudes who wanna own washington post and twitter right why not do you know | |
Sam Parr | How many people watch CNN at any given time? Like, their real-time viewers can be as low as tens of thousands of people. It's not a significant amount of people that are watching at any given moment.
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Shaan Puri | There's chicks on Twitch doing ASMR that have more viewership than CNN, like in the middle of the afternoon.
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Sam Parr | yeah that's what I'm saying like cnn like | |
Shaan Puri | not really but it's hilarious that I said that | |
Sam Parr | So, I mean, there’s like cool stuff. Anderson Cooper is pretty cool, but it’s just like... it’s like listening to the dentist. You listen to it when you’re at the dentist. It’s not particularly engaging when you’re...
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Shaan Puri | trapped in a chair being tortured | |
Sam Parr |
Yeah, it's like shooting situations and going to the dentist are the only times that I've got CNN on. Or when you go to... do you ever go to get coffee in the morning at Fox or at McDonald's? They always have Fox playing in the background. That's like the only time I see the news.
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Shaan Puri | that's hilarious did you see the cnn + like failed | |
Sam Parr | It failed. Yeah, dude, what do you expect? You can't just put a plus in their paywall and add the stuff that no one cares about, then hope that they automatically subscribe. Quartz shut down their paywall today too. It was the same thing. You can't just call it Quartz Pro and expect to get more money because the main Quartz already sucks. You know what I mean? It's like you just put a bow on it.
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Shaan Puri | pay for it though | |
Sam Parr | You can't put a bow on a pile of poo and expect it to not be a pile of poo. But that's basically what a lot of these companies do, and it's not the right move. | |
Shaan Puri | yeah the + thing is just like a dead giveaway it's like that's a tell | |
Sam Parr | a + or pro alright that was good |