Today is the last class in our current April four class set. We will begin class with a casual conversation. Our reading today is about Ali Wong. Our listening is about the poison pill. Please use the reading to find vocabulary words to discuss in class. I will ask you to share a few words. Please listen and follow the transcript. For the mini grammar you need to choose if the sentence is present continuous or simple present. Write or type the sentences on a piece of paper and hand them into to me during class.
Click HERE for the reading
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Twitter is firing back at Elon Musk. The billionaire Tesla CEO is attempting to acquire the social media company. But today, Twitter unveiled a plan that will make it a lot more difficult for Musk to do so. NPR tech reporter
Bobby Allyn is here to help us understand what is going on. Hey, Bobby.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK. So how is Twitter trying to stop Musk?
ALLYN: Yeah. So Twitter's board of directors today introduced something known as a poison pill plan. Right now, Elon Musk owns, like, 9% of the company. But under this plan, if he or, you know, really anyone else tries to buy 15% or more of Twitter, this pill kicks in. And what happens then is, you know, Twitter's stock would become available at a discount, basically flooding the market with really cheap Twitter stock. And, you know, for Elon Musk, that could mean the shares of Twitter that he now owns could be cut in half. And that, you know, would be a loss in the billions of dollars.
I talked to corporate governance expert Edward Rock about this. He's with NYU's Law School.
EDWARD ROCK: The poison pill puts a temporary roadblock in front of Musk going forward, which gives the board a chance to evaluate the bid, whether it makes sense to sell the company and, if they are going to sell the company, whether it makes sense to sell the company to him.
ALLYN: Yeah. In essence, it's a delaying tactic. It gives, you know, Twitter up to a year to figure out what to do.
CHANG: OK, but is this poison pill strategy going to be enough to actually end this bid from Musk, you think?
ALLYN: Yeah, we don't know just yet. But, you know, Ailsa, the larger question that we hear in Silicon Valley is, you know, just how serious is Musk when he says he wants to buy Twitter? I mean, one really notable absence in the SEC paperwork that he submitted to try to acquire Twitter was how he plans to pay for it. The paperwork, you know, said that his bid hinges on the, quote, "completion of anticipated financing," right?
CHANG: OK.
ALLYN: A wee bit vague.
CHANG: Yeah (laughter).
ALLYN: So I mean, as, you know, obviously the richest person in the world, he can probably figure out some way to buy Twitter for the $43 billion he says it's worth. But, you know, without any specifics, some people are like, is he making a legitimate investment decision, or is he trolling us? Is this some elaborate...
CHANG: Yeah.
ALLYN: ...Elon Musk joke?
CHANG: That's what I want to talk about. Like, can we just step back for a second to talk about why in the world Elon Musk would even want to own Twitter? Like, what do you think his ultimate motivation is here?
ALLYN: Yeah. That's a good question. And the problem is he's kind of all over the place with exactly what his motivations are here. So we all know Musk is a very erratic person, and he's living up to that reputation here with this Twitter drama. He, you know, says he wants Twitter to be more of a free-speech platform, not subject to what he calls censorship. He also says he wants more transparency around how Twitter's algorithm works - you know, why are some tweets demoted, some tweets promoted? - sort of a glimpse into that process.
But look - Musk just courts controversy and attention everywhere he goes. This is a very influential piece of internet real estate. So I think he sees this as a chance to get bragging rights, a chance to stay in the headlines and maybe a chance to troll all of us. Who knows?
CHANG: That is NPR's Bobby Allyn. Thank you, Bobby.
ALLYN: Thanks, Ailsa.