Elon Musk said he’s “buying Coca-Cola to refill the cocaine” as he joked about what he plans to do next after his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
In a chat session late Wednesday with his 87 million Twitter followers, Musk then re-posted a meme suggesting he buy McDonald’s to fix the restaurant chain’s chronically broken ice machines.
“Listen I can’t do miracles okay,” he tweeted.
Musk vowed to make Twitter “maximum fun” while continuing to provide hints about how he intends to run the company after the board accepted his $44 billion takeover bid as the world’s richest man earlier this week .
Musk posted several tweets late Wednesday night and Thursday morning making some suggestions to upgrade the site.
“Twitter DMs should have end-to-end encryption like Signal so no one can spy or hack your messages,” Musk tweeted.
Musk’s $44 billion takeover bid was accepted by Twitter’s board of directors earlier this week. Getty Images
Musk has vowed to buy Twitter and change its content moderation policy to honor its original mission as a platform to promote free speech.
He reiterated the pledge Wednesday night, tweeting, “For Twitter to earn public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means angering the far right and the far left alike.”
Musk also seemed to take a liking to the memes posted to mock Twitter employees who are reportedly upset about the Tesla boss’s plans to acquire the San Francisco-based company.
When Twitter user Kyle Mann wrote that his post of a Babylon Bee video showing a Twitter worker “undergoing therapy due to an upcoming @elonmusk takeover” was flagged as “sensitive content” by the service, responded Musk with two hysterically laughing emojis.
Next I buy Coca-Cola to refill the cocaine
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
Twitter DMs should have end-to-end encryption like Signal so nobody can spy on or hack your messages
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
Let’s make Twitter maximum fun!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
Meanwhile, some pundits are predicting Musk won’t buy Twitter after all. They see his company-critical tweets – which allegedly go against his promise not to criticize the platform – as a sign of lack of seriousness.
Wall Street analysts are pointing to the impact Musk’s pending takeover of Twitter has had on his electric car company Tesla.
Tesla has lost more than $100 billion in value as investors speculate that Musk may need to sell stock to fund his $21 billion equity contribution to his $44 billion Twitter buyout.
Tesla isn’t involved in the Twitter deal, but its shares have been targeted by speculators after Musk refused to publicly disclose where his money for the acquisition came from.
Tuesday’s 12.2% drop in Tesla stock represented a $21 billion loss in the value of his Tesla holdings, along with the $21 billion in cash he pledged for the Twitter deal.
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said worries about Musk’s upcoming stock sales and the possibility that he will be distracted by Twitter weighed on Tesla shares.
“This causes a bear-fest for the name,” he said.
Musk’s promise to change how content is moderated could run afoul of European Union regulations that require social media platforms to crack down on hate speech.
It also raises questions about how Musk’s takeover of Twitter, which has angered authorities in China for allowing Hong Kong protesters to post freely about their fight for democracy, is affecting the car company’s activities in the country will.
Elon Musk took to Twitter on Wednesday and joked that he intends to buy Coca-Cola to “refill the cocaine.” REUTERS
Musk’s plans to take over Twitter have had a negative impact on Tesla’s share price – leading to speculation that he might withdraw his offer, AP
If Musk were to take over Twitter, China could threaten to limit Tesla’s presence in the country if he doesn’t play along and heed the Chinese Communist Party’s dictates on the social media platform – undermining his “absolutist freedom of speech.”
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos trolled Musk’s takeover of Twitter, questioning whether it could strengthen China – only to later conclude his theory was “probably” far-fetched.
“Musk’s tweets criticizing some of the company’s actions – which may violate the merger agreement – already indicate that he is beginning to lose interest,” according to Reuters, BreakingViews.
“Most likely, Musk’s attention will go elsewhere. It would not be the first time.”
While Musk continues to freely tweet about the company he is set to acquire, a federal judge ruled against him doing the same regarding Tesla.
US District Court Judge Lewis Liman on Wednesday rejected Musk’s bid to end a 2018 consent decree that restricted his ability to tweet about Tesla and dealt a blow to the billionaire in his ongoing feud with the SEC.
With mail wires