Twitter investors are divided into two camps over Musk’s move. | Jobs Vox

Twitter investors are divided into two camps: the copious and the apoplectic.

Why is it important? Elon Musk never intended to run the site forever based on public and private opinions. But investors have been told that the transition will take place within three to six months, rather than a decision being made within six weeks of ownership.

Reminder: Musk is the majority owner of Twitter, but the $44 billion takeover has been funded in part by outside investors, including venture capital funds, mutual funds, wealthy individuals, corporations and sovereign wealth funds.

Grab it fast. It’s been a very tumultuous weekend on Twitter, including the suspension of some journalists’ accounts and the creation of a policy that prevents all users from mentioning or linking to their other social media accounts.

• Musk ended a Twitter poll last night asking if he should step down as Twitter’s “chief” and saying he respects the results. More than 57% of users responded positively.
• No successor appears to have been chosen, and it’s unclear whether Musk will step down immediately or use the election results to start a CEO search process. It’s worth emphasizing that any new CEO will report to Musk, so a switch may be more metaphor than substance.

Some optimism Shareholders believe Musk has largely done what he said he would do — cutting costs and increasing engagement. Short term pain for long term gain.

• A source in this camp added that while Musk’s tweet yesterday that Twitter was “on the fast track to bankruptcy since May” was factually incorrect, Musk’s previous reference to SpaceX as a rhetorical ploy to motivate himself and others was false. .
• Musk has admittedly had a rough weekend, but his past success with SpaceX and Tesla gives him confidence that he will eventually sort things out.

But a group of worried investors Include some VC fund partners in the first group. One tells Axios he’s dreading having to grill him in front of the firm’s investment committee.

• All investors know that Musk marches to the beat of his own drum and is partial to business decisions that aren’t his. But Musk publicly attacked Twitter’s advertisers (i.e., customers) and was surprised by the media beefs and public opinion of the CEO.
• The general consensus of the group is that Musk has already decided to overpay, and therefore does not consider their investment to be an owner.

The main point is: Musk last week asked existing Twitter shareholders to buy him out at a price of $44 billion. Regardless of what investors say publicly or historically to reporters, we will learn from where they stand in how they respond to his offer.