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~ Personal News ~
I am writing a book about Dorsey and Twitter with ! I’ve been writing about both Jack and Twitter since 2013 and the story only gets more and more interesting. I’m excited to go even deeper with a book.
Kurt Wagner
Kurt Wagner
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Kurt Wagner
@KurtWagner8
Covering social media, Facebook + Twitter for Bloomberg . DMs are open. Go Seahawks. Go M’s.
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Twitter’s new owner weighs in on today’s layoffs
Quote Tweet
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
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Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.
Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.
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“It’s like a fire...People are looking for survivors.”
A look at Twitter after a devastating day of layoffs. Major cuts to product, engineering, marketing. A number of other teams have been almost completely eliminated... w/
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Kurt Wagner
Host
Twitter Layoffs: What’s Next for Elon Musk | Social Power Hour
19.3K tuned in·Nov 4·
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Tough morning! Lots happening at Twitter right now as the company is going through a major round of layoffs. We’ll do our best to fill you in on what we are hearing. Hope you can join and bring some questions…
Kurt Wagner
Host
Twitter Layoffs: What’s Next for Elon Musk | Social Power Hour
19.3K tuned in·Nov 4·
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It sounds like Twitter’s PR/comms team — which was maybe ~80-100 people — is down to just two people after layoffs today….
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And all the senior execs who would normally be calling advertisers to convince them to stay or come back have been fired…
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Elon Musk
@elonmusk
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Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.
Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.
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Davey Alba
@daveyalba
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Twitter was probably THE most responsive platform when I covered misinformation in the 2020 presidential election. They were incredibly proactive in labeling posts that had misleading information about vote counts, missing ballots, and protests happening at voting centers.
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Well that was fast!
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Josh Eidelson
@josheidelson
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Scoop: Twitter was just sued in a proposed class action for conducting a mass layoff without the required 60 day notice https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-04/twitter-sued-for-mass-layoffs-by-musk-without-enough-notice…
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Hearing that some of those who are being laid off from Twitter are pregnant. And they don’t know what severance or insurance coverage they’ll have moving forward. Just so much uncertainty right now on top of losing your job…
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It sounds like this is already happening. Hearing some folks are suddenly getting cut off from Slack and email. No confirmation email from Twitter, but the assumption is they’ve been laid off…
Quote Tweet
Kurt Wagner
@KurtWagner8
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NEW: Email to Twitter staff just now confirmed layoffs will start Friday. Employees will receive an email by 9 am PT letting them know if they still have a job or not
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News: Twitter has informed staff that layoffs will start Friday. “To place Twitter on a healthy path.” Twitter offices will be temporarily closed. More coming with
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NEW: Email to Twitter staff just now confirmed layoffs will start Friday. Employees will receive an email by 9 am PT letting them know if they still have a job or not
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two years later...
interesting social media analysis here of the Big Lie by +
Quote Tweet
Davey Alba
@daveyalba
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NEW analysis/investigation with @jackgillum: For weeks, we studied more than 1 million tweets & Facebook posts from hundreds of candidates who said they believed—somewhat or fully—that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. What we found was illuminating https://bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-election-denier-republican-social-media/?sref=qneqM2kv…
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Not surprising but Elon is quickly eliminating the work-lifestyle perks at Twitter. “Days of rest” are out. Eliminating “Work from anywhere” is next.
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Ed Ludlow
@EdLudlow
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NEW: Musk Eliminates ‘Days of Rest’ From Twitter Employee Calendars
Along with plans to cancel Twitter's remote work policies, Musk is replicating playbooks from $TSLA and SpaceX. Story with @KurtWagner8
https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-03/musk-eliminates-days-of-rest-from-twitter-employee-calendars…
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A possible sneak peek of what the new verification badge might look like? Left is how it looks on the public Twitter app (blue check only). Right is how it looks like on Twitter’s internal app (“official account”)
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Sarah Frier
@sarahfrier
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Besides cutting half the workforce Friday, Musk plans to start charging for verification on Monday: https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-02/musk-to-begin-charging-for-twitter-verification-as-soon-as-monday…
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Full Story w/ :
Twitter plans to cut ~50% of its workforce Friday and end “work from anywhere” policy
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It is possible that exceptions will be made for some employees on the remote work policy. But generally, the days of “everyone can work from anywhere they want” are over
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Employees have been bracing for this for weeks. These numbers and this timing have changed over time. But it sounds like things are starting to solidify.
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NEW: Elon Musk plans to eliminate ~3,700 jobs at Twitter on Friday. About half the staff. He also plans to end the “work from anywhere” policy… story w/
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Lolz
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I loved Vine. Was sad when it shut down. But bringing it back seems like it will be really really challenging for a bunch of reasons.
From this morning’s Tech Daily newsletter:
https://bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-11-02/how-vine-died-and-why-elon-musk-wants-to-bring-it-back-at-twitter…
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I just really don’t understand this strategy. For this to work wouldn’t it require almost *every* real person to subscribe? What am I missing?
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omg it finally happened!
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Room Rater
@ratemyskyperoom
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Like the white cabinet. We are pro bulletin board. Reposition to make it a corner shot. Crop most of left/white void. 8/10 @KurtWagner8
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I think a Twitter ad boycott could be pretty significant. When the FB ad boycott happened Sheryl Sandberg and other senior leaders spent days making calls to soothe big advertisers. everyone who would do that at Twitter just quit or was fired
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What’s so crazy about this is that employees have heard absolutely nothing from leadership - no word from Elon, other execs. They are reading rumors on blind, and learning about C-suite departures in the press 
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Kurt Wagner
@KurtWagner8
·
Twitter leadership team has been gutted since Elon took over last Thursday. Those out:
CEO Parag Agrawal
CFO Ned Segal
Policy boss Vijaya Gadde
GC Sean Edgett
CMO Leslie Berland
GM Product Jay Sullivan
GM eng Nick Caldwell
Chief customer officer Sarah Personette
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Twitter leadership team has been gutted since Elon took over last Thursday. Those out:
CEO Parag Agrawal
CFO Ned Segal
Policy boss Vijaya Gadde
GC Sean Edgett
CMO Leslie Berland
GM Product Jay Sullivan
GM eng Nick Caldwell
Chief customer officer Sarah Personette
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Vine's return, looming layoffs, executive turnover, policy issues -- here's where and I emptied our reporting notebooks on Twitter for those interested
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$8 for verification (plus a bunch of other stuff, like fewer ads) feels much more realistic and compelling than $20
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Elon Musk
@elonmusk
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Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.
Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.
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From overnight: More executive changes coming at Twitter... w/
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new bio for Chief Twit, who is quickly learning that running Twitter means a constant stream of "feedback"
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So afaik, there are confirmed equity holders, valuation as of closing:
$977M Jack Dorsey
$1B Qatar
$1.89B Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
are any of the others post-hoc confirmed, or just riding on pre-close rumors and filings?
interesting to note this agreement was inked 10/27 
Quote Tweet
The Chancery Daily
@chancery_daily
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It appears we can confirm @jack did in fact roll over (all? some? need to look at the document) his shares into X Holdings, Inc.
Let's check out the filing — this is the attachment to the 13(d).
1/
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One other small but important note: Musk seems very interested in two specific policies:
1. The general misinfo policy, which he feels is too broad
2. A “hateful conduct” policy about targeting transgender people by misgendering or deadnaming
He wants both to be reviewed
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Some still have full access but it’s a small group ~30. The company did this to keep employees from doing something unexpected given the Musk transition (the app code base was also frozen, e.g.)
But with US election a week away some T&S folks worry they can’t do their job
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New: Twitter has limited access to the enforcement tools used by the Trust and Safety team for misinfo/abuse. Key considering most of the high profile/gray area issues usually make it to internal teams w/
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SCOOP w/ : Twitter has frozen most T&S employees' access to internal tools used for content moderation and other policy enforcement, curbing the staff’s ability to clamp down on misinformation ahead of a major US election. Live
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So if every single verified account paid $20/month, that would be roughly ~$100m in new annual sales.
I assume the number willing to pay would be much much smaller though. I wonder at what price this is actually worth it for the business?
Quote Tweet
Alex Heath
@alexeheath
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Fun fact: the @verified account automatically follows every account with a blue checkmark.
That means there are about 423,000 accounts that will soon lose their check if they don’t convert to the upcoming subscription. https://theverge.com/2022/10/30/23431931/twitter-paid-verification-elon-musk-blue-monthly-subscription…
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The Saudis have owned a large chunk of Twitter for many years. Here is the proxy showing a ~5% stake in 2016. Interesting that this is suddenly interesting to people.
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Chris Murphy
@ChrisMurphyCT
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Today I am requesting the Committee on Foreign Investment — which reviews acquisitions of U.S. businesses by foreign buyers — to conduct an investigation into the national security implications of Saudi Arabia's purchase of Twitter.
https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-21/us-weighs-security-reviews-for-musk-deals-including-twitter-buy…
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NEW: Twitter is planning to start charging $20 a month for verification. It’s Elon Musk’s first big project.
Oh, and the team building it was told they will all be fired if they don’t meet a launch deadline of November 7th.
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Elon Musk has deleted his tweet spreading an unfounded conspiracy about Pelosi’s husband. And his fans are now upset that he has “caved to the leftist mob”
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This is giving me real Twitter-2015 vibes. Potentially losing users like LeBron will be the consequence of removing policies around hate speech if that ends up being Elon’s plan
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LeBron James
@KingJames
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I dont know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns twitter. But I will say that if this is true, I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary AF. So many damn unfit people saying hate speech is free speech. twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/st…
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Hellscape or not, Twitter is about to look very very different. Buckle up.
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A million questions on this but sounds on the surface like FB’s Oversight Board.
Also presumably this means there will be no Trump return for at least a little longer
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Elon Musk
@elonmusk
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Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.
No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.
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Here is the statement Twitter shared with media on Oct 9 (notice the “was limited”)
“Per our rules, the account owner was required to delete the Tweet and their access to Twitter was limited for a period of time.” - Twitter Spokesperson
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Seeing a lot of confusion around this today: was not un-banned or reinstated today. He was never banned. His account was temporarily frozen. That freeze was quickly lifted weeks ago, according to two sources. He’s been able to tweet for weeks.
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Feels like a good day to remind everyone that I’m writing a book about Twitter +
If you’ve ever worked at Twitter I’d love to hear from you!
Quote Tweet
Kurt Wagner
@KurtWagner8
·
~ Personal News ~
I am writing a book about @jack Dorsey and Twitter with @AtriaBooks! I’ve been writing about both Jack and Twitter since 2013 and the story only gets more and more interesting. I’m excited to go even deeper with a book.
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Twitter CFO says goodbye
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Ned Segal
@nedsegal
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Thursday concluded 5 years @twitter. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such an incredible group of people building the world’s town square for all of our stakeholders. The work isn’t complete, but we made meaningful progress.
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This is definitely the feeling from a lot of employees. What I’ll add is Parag walked into an almost impossible situation. Musk showed up just 4 months into the job…
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Shirin Ghaffary
@shiringhaffary
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Parag Agrawal, CEO of Twitter for less than a year, is expected to receive $42 mil in severance.
Hearing criticism from some Twitter employees who feel he stayed quiet and didn't do enough to lead the company thru the Elon deal chaos.
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He has a Twitter email address
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It is official: Elon Musk owns Twitter
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NEW: At least four of Twitter’s top execs, including CEO Parag Agrawal, head of policy Vijaya Gadde, CFO Ned Segal, and GC Sean Edgett are out
Musk officially taking over
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“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
Quote Tweet
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
·
Dear Twitter Advertisers
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Breaking - Musk told some of the $TWTR employees he met today that he doesn't plan to cut 75% of staff. Am told he said he didn't know where that figure came from but he didn't explicitly rule out cuts.
With
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Imagine being the guy who got the “be sure to remember the sink” text this morning
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Elon Musk
@elonmusk
·
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!
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The media could not be played.
Reload
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(I’m told he is there today)
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New: Elon Musk will be in Twitter’s SF office this week “meeting with folks, walking the halls,” according to an internal email from
“You’ll all hear directly from him on Friday”
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October was “Wellness Month” at Twitter. Employees are not well.
A look inside Twitter as Musk’s deal approaches w/
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New: Internal memo from Twitter's sent around tonight says "no plans for any company-wide layoffs."
As for Musk's planned layoffs: "we do not have any confirmation of the buyer’s plans following close."
He warned there will be "tons of public rumors and speculation"
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impeccable timing. this is happening 8 days before the deal is set to close after months and months of discussions....
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New: Musk's Twitter deal could soon be under national security review $TWTR
Quote Tweet
Jennifer Jacobs
@JenniferJJacobs
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Scoop: Biden admin officials are discussing whether US should subject some of @elonmusk’s ventures to national security reviews, including his deal for Twitter Inc., and the Starlink satellite network, sources tell @SalehaMohsin and me. @BloombergTV
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oh boy. Twitter employees have been bracing for layoffs but this would be much bigger than I imagine anyone expected
Quote Tweet
Elizabeth Dwoskin
@lizzadwoskin
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SCOOP: Elon Musk told investors he planned to cut 75% of Twitter’s workforce, gutting to a skeleton staff of 2,000. Also, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman passed on the Twitter deal. Via me @faizsays @GerritD @jeremybmerrill
https://washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/20/musk-twitter-acquisition-staff-cuts/…
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I wrangled the top things you need to watch for this tech earnings season:
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Ye is still on Twitter now. He doesn’t need to be invited back!
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Donie O'Sullivan
@donie
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Good point!
@elonmusk "could buy Twitter and say, ‘Trump, you’re back, Kanye, you’re back,’ and then Kanye is stuck owning a relatively defunct, somewhat irrelevant platform," @btdecker tells @claresduffy
https://cnn.com/2022/10/18/tech/kanye-west-parler-conservative-social-media…
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Previously when he talked about the deal he did so as if he wasn't sure whether it would actually happen. This felt different than that. Almost like he actually plans to buy Twitter!
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He added that he and other investors are likely overpaying for Twitter, but said that the long term potential value of the company is an “order of magnitude greater than its current value.”
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(assuming “you” means “all of you on Twitter who I am coming to save by buying the company”)
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Quote Tweet
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
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I will not let you down, no matter what it takes
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New: Twitter employee equity accounts have been locked “in anticipation of the closing of the pending acquisition of Twitter by an entity controlled by Elon Musk”
A sign that Twitter is inching this thing closer $TWTR
Quote Tweet
Ed Ludlow
@EdLudlow
·
Breaking @TheTerminal with @KurtWagner8
$TWTR has frozen equity awards accounts for employees on Monday as the deadline to seal a deal with Elon Musk approaches.
The move is a signal that Twitter is marching forward with the proposed deal.
Stock up around 2%
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I’m sure this is just a joke and means nothing and I’m over analyzing but also it’s interesting the Musk has “X” not Twitter https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1582388928870748161…
This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author. Learn more
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today is a "day of rest" for Twitter employees, which usually means all hell breaks loose with some kind of major twitter news cycle, but not so far.
If the deal goes through, I also assume this will be the last day of rest employees will be getting...
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also journalism is such a weird job sometimes. the unexpected happens every week and you just go with it. like being like "hey can you talk to Ye in like 20 min?" was nowhere on my radar at all until suddenly it was
Quote Tweet
Kurt Wagner
@KurtWagner8
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“When I got kicked off of Instagram and Twitter at the time, I knew it was time to acquire my own platform."
Interviewed Ye (@kanyewest) about his Parler acquisition this morning w/ @KimBhasin. Some interesting quotes in here.
https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-17/ye-says-parler-purchase-prompted-by-instagram-twitter-penalties?sref=dZ65CIng…
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“When I got kicked off of Instagram and Twitter at the time, I knew it was time to acquire my own platform."
Interviewed Ye () about his Parler acquisition this morning w/ . Some interesting quotes in here.
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officially two more weeks until the Twitter-Musk deadline (5 pm ET on Oct 28)
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Everything we know about Twitter — from the product to the execs in charge — is about to change. What happens now when takes over?
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GIF
read image description
ALT
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I’m physically ill right now
Quote Tweet
Ryan Divish
@RyanDivish
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Game over.
Astros 8, Mariners 7 ....
Unbelievable
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“gimme one sec I need to send this tweet about mark zuckerberg’s avatar having legs” - me today
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Here’s Mark Zuckerberg’s avatar for the company’s connect conference going on right now. Certainly better than the one he got mocked for. Also: Legs!
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this whole thing is getting extra bizarre. Meta said ’s original story about content takedowns was a “fabrication.”
The Wire said “here are the receipts.”
Meta now says “those receipts are also fake”
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Guy Rosen
@guyro
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I wanted to set the record straight about two stories run this week by @thewire_in with untrue claims about Meta’s content moderation operations and processes. tl;dr these stories are fabrications. (1/6)
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The media could not be played.
Reload
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I *believe* those temporary locks are at least 12 hours, but can last up to 7 days. Not sure how long this one is
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And then Twitter locked Kanye out of his account.
Quote Tweet
Donie O'Sullivan
@donie
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Twitter removed overnight Kanye West's tweet about Jewish people.
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Kurt Wagner
Host
Musk-Twitter Trial + Now What?? | Social Power Hour
983 tuned in·Oct 7·
Play recording
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Happy Friday! This crazy week deserves a second Social Power Hour about Musk + Twitter. What happens now??
Kurt Wagner
Host
Musk-Twitter Trial + Now What?? | Social Power Hour
983 tuned in·Oct 7·
Play recording
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original trial was set for Oct. 17th. So now the two sides have a few more weeks to work out the details considering they *seem* to be close
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NEW: Judge in Twitter-Musk case has delayed the trial, says both sides MUST close the deal by Oct. 28th at 5 PM
If the deal is not closed by then, she will set a November court date $TWTR
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CAN SOMEONE JUST TELL ME IF I AM GOING TO DELAWARE OR NOT PLEASE
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New: Elon Musk's lawyer now says that Twitter offered to sell for lower than $54.20 per share, but Musk rejected it because other conditions were added
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I went on Tech to talk Twitter-Musk. I’d suggest listening NOW before things change again, which happens about every 5-10 minutes
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NEWS: Per Twitter, “starting this afternoon we’re gradually rolling out Edit Tweet to all U.S. Twitter Blue subscribers.”
VICTORY 
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New: Elon Musk plans to skip his deposition tomorrow. Not shocking but given Twitter still hasn’t officially done anything to halt its lawsuit this is also interesting…Oct 17 trial date approaches
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Both sides claim the want the same thing in Musk-Twitter and yet…
Quote Tweet
The Chancery Daily
@chancery_daily
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I been telling you.
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“Should I stay or should I go”
Musk’s renewed interest in his Twitter deal puts Twitter employees back in a precarious position
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Kurt Wagner
Host
Elon Musk Wants to Buy Twitter Again | Social Power Hour
3.5K tuned in·Oct 4·
Play recording
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Of course we need an emergency Social Power Hour today!
We’ll have join us, who was the first to break the Musk-Twitter news this morning. See ya soon!
Kurt Wagner
Host
Elon Musk Wants to Buy Twitter Again | Social Power Hour
3.5K tuned in·Oct 4·
Play recording
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Twitter finally weighs in: "We received the letter from the Musk parties which they have filed with the SEC. The intention of the Company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share." - Twitter spokesperson
In other words, sounds like we got a deal (again)
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Meanwhile, inside Twitter, employees have been in strategic planning meetings all morning just watching things unfold on Twitter
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at least we'll always have the text messages
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BREAKING: Elon Musk is expected to propose that the Twitter deal proceed at the original $54.20 per share price $TWTR
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Late night story. We heard Facebook’s 225 Park office is shutting down
Quote Tweet
Katie Roof
@Katie_Roof
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Sources say Meta is abandoning one of its main offices in NYC https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-04/meta-is-closing-one-new-york-office-with-cutbacks-looming… $FB
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Good point. Twitter CEO was the only person who really pushed back at all on Musk (and it seemed to quickly backfire)
Quote Tweet
Brad Stone
@BradStone
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Not everyone looked foolish in last week's Elon-Twitter Texts. There was one person who didn't bend the knee: https://bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-10-03/elon-musk-twitter-texts-there-was-one-person-who-didn-t-embarrass-himself… via the @technology daily newsletter.
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