Elon Musk fans like to claim their hero is always playing four-dimensional chess. No matter how chaotic his actions, they believe the billionaire Tesla boss has secret plans too brilliant for the rest of the world to understand. Parsing his $44bn deal to take social media platform Twitter private requires a similar level of faith.
Musk has pinned his offer on the need to protect free speech. His interest was reportedly piqued by a suspension of satire account Babylon Bee (which just so happens to have published flattering jokes about Musk). It is an expensive stand to take. To facilitate the deal he is putting up $21bn of equity commitments and $12.5bn of loans against his own Tesla stock. All for a slow growing 16 year old company that reported a net loss of $221mn last year.
Then again, Musk may not be buying Twitter for all of its 217mn accounts. His interest could be just one — his own. He is a prolific Tweeter with nearly 84mn followers who uses Twitter as a source of publicity for his companies. Owning Twitter ensures he is never censored. Reinstating certain banned accounts, including President Trump’s, could score political points in the future too.