Report: Musk Considering Taking Twitter Public Again

MAY 4 2022·Updated DEC 24 2022

Story

Image credit: Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock [via The Guardian]

The Facts

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is pursuing a takeover of Twitter, has reportedly told potential investors they will probably be able to cash out as soon as three years from now, when he might take the company public.
wsj
Private-equity investors often take distressed companies private and then list them on the public market again after they've turned around; Twitter is reportedly low on cash after losing $221M last year.
Business Insider
In April, Twitter agreed to be sold to Elon Musk for roughly $44B, in a deal that followed weeks of drama pertaining to Musk's pursuit of the company. Musk has told the SEC he intends to leverage a mix of debt and cash to complete the deal, which must close by October.
ITN
Musk recently shared one idea he has for Twitter's turnaround when he tweeted: "Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users." A second tweet said: "Some revenue is better than none!"
guardian
Also this week, a group of organizations critical of Musk's plan to bring unlimited free speech to Twitter issued a letter urging advertisers to insist he maintain the platform's current content moderation policies.
Axios

Sources Split

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CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Musk is a billionaire, but he's also a man of the people as proven by his plan to monetize Twitter by only charging those who can afford to pay. By the time he takes Twitter public again, his bastion of free speech will be profitable and no one will want to change it back to its restrictive past.

The US Sun

Narrative B

Musk says he's pursuing Twitter to restore the principles of free speech to the platform, but his promising of a public offering to potential investors in three years, along with his plans to charge some people for using the site, seem to indicate he's more likely pursuing profits over anything else.

RealMoney

Narrative C

A three-year timeline to take Twitter public again may be overly optimistic. Private-equity firms usually take at least five years to restructure a company before taking it public once more, and Musk's prior track record of missing production deadlines is a good indication that this could take longer than estimated.