As long as money is present, taking over a company shouldn't be that difficult. What's difficult, is leading it, and making it thrive.
Elon Musk, the billionaire and serial entrepreneur, is the richest man on Earth. And with a centibillionaire net worth, there is no doubt that Musk's influence echoes throughout the hallways of various businesses, even those that he doesn't own.
Twitter, the popular microblogging platform co-founded by Jack Dorsey, has been acquired by the billionaire in a $44 billion deal.
Ever since Musk took the lead, the billionaire has made numerous changes, including firing lots its employees.
While there are certainly lots of people who hate Musk because of this, there are others who love what he does.
And this time, Silicon Valley leaders start sharing their own opinions regarding Musk's acquisition of Twitter, and how they expect the new owner of Twitter to be.
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings went as far as calling Elon Musk "the bravest, most creative person on the planet."
Hastings said Musk has a different management style than his own but added that he's "100% convinced he's trying to help the world with all of his endeavors."
According to him, Musk went as buying Twitter wholly because he believes in free speech and its power for democracy.
"It's not how I would do it, but I'm deeply respectful," said Hastings. "I'm amazed that people are so nitpicky."
“What he’s done in multiple areas is phenomenal. You know, his style is different. I’m trying to be a steady, respectable leader. He doesn’t care. Think of a guy who’s spent $44 billion. He could’ve built a mile-long yacht for $44 billion but it’s like not good for the planet. He’s not interested,” added Hastings.
While Hastings praised Musk, the same doesn't really apply to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The Facebook founder said he was keen to see how Musk's management of content moderation on Twitter would fare, arguing it was good for platforms to take different approaches.
"You can agree or disagree with what Elon is doing, or how he's doing it, but I do think it's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out," said Zuckerberg, speaking at the New York Times' DealBook conference..
"I would guess that not everything is going to work, but I think some things might work."
Back in April, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos shared a bit of his thoughts regarding Musk's eagerness in buying Twitter.
Read" Twitter Grew 'Too Quickly.' But It 'Will Never Die'
But we’ll see. Musk is extremely good at navigating this kind of complexity.
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 26, 2022
Despite the two have been trolling each other on Twitter, especially since they are rivals in the space race, Bezos has high hopes on Musk, saying that "Musk is extremely good at navigating this kind of complexity."
But still, Bezos knows that Tesla is somehow dependent on China. Musk has established a Tesla factory in Shanghai in 2018, and that Tesla imports materials from China to build its batteries.
"Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?" Bezos wrote on Twitter.
Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and the first ever centibillionaire of the modern age of tech, also said something about this, but warned that Musk could make Twitter "worse."
Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Summit Wednesday, Gates admitted that Musk’s track record at other companies is impressive, hailing his time at the helm of Tesla and SpaceX as “mind-blowing.” Gates said he believed Musk had done a good job of putting together a great team of engineers at those companies.
" [...] we should have an open mind and never underestimate Elon,” he said.
Another tech founder who showed his support, is Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle.
It was Musk who approached him first, offering him a share, recommending Ellison to participate in the Twitter deal by pouring in "$2 billion of more," saying that the acquisition "has very high potential and I’d rather have you than anyone else," said Musk.
"I agree that it has huge potential...and it would be a lot of fun," Ellison said in a text message to Musk.
Ellison has said that he is “very close friends” with Musk, and he was added to Tesla’s board in 2018.
That said, it's a fact that Twitter has no competition. No place for uncertain users to go. Which along with the cost cutting, buys @elonmusk time. Its not the simps or critics that will change his mind. I think he wants to have a profitable platform where users feel safe
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) November 20, 2022
Among others, also include Mark Cuban.
Just like the many millions of people and advertisers, Cuban doesn't hide his admiration for Musk, as he claims to have followed closely Musk' various endeavors, especially after the Twitter acquisition.
"The greatest challenge Twitter has is making users feel safe," Cuban commented a day after Musk reinstated former President Donald Trump's Twitter account. "Safe that they won't be abused by users on the platform. Safe that tweets won't lead to action off the platform that hurt people. I think this is the element that @elonmusk is missing that current AI can't protect."
The billionaire who famously set a Guinness World Record after purchasing a private jet through the internet in 1999, added that Musk is just like any other entrepreneurs out there.
" [...] the vision when you start, rarely is the place you end up. It's a learning, iterative process. It's only been a few weeks. @elonmusk is smart and been here before. I'm cautiously optimistic he figures it out and the platform is safe and sustainable."
But like all entrepreneurs, the vision when you start, rarely is the place you end up. It's a learning, iterative process. It's only been a few weeks. @elonmusk is smart and been here before. I'm cautiously optimistic he figures it out and the platform is safe and sustainable.
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) November 20, 2022
Just before this, Musk just had a bit of a quarrel with Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple.
The billionaire has spent days bashing Apple Inc.’s policies, and even indirectly confronted Apple by saying that if Twitter is banned from the App Store, he would build his own phone.
Musk also tweeted that Apple had "mostly stopped advertising on Twitter," and questioned whether those making decisions at Apple "hate free speech in America."
"What’s going on here @tim_cook?" he tweeted on November 29th.
Musk also suggested that Apple was censoring content, and posted a poll asking whether people wanted Apple to “publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers," adding that Apple “threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store” without giving a reason, and griped about the cut that Apple takes of in-app purchases made through its devices.
But later, Musk took to Twitter to post a short video of Apple's Cupertino campus, with a message thanking Tim Cook for showing him around.
Notably, the tweet was identified as posted via “Twitter for iPhone.”
"We resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so," he said in a follow-up tweet.
After meeting Cook in person, His thought was a departure from his more heated approach
Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2022