Sequoia Capital head Roelof Botha thinks Elon Musk’s takeover will help grow the social-media giant.
Key Details
- Roelof Botha, the head of Sequoia Capital, thinks Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover will be successful and that he has what it takes to change the platform for the better.
- Botha invested $800 million in the Twitter deal as well as previous investments in Musk’s other business ventures.
- He believes that Musk is a smart businessman and that he can change Twitter and be successful in this new venture.
Why it’s news
Venture leader Roelof Botha says he believes that Twitter has a lot of potential and Elon Musk’s takeover will be successful.
Botha said at a recent conference that there are big changes that Twitter can make to bring in more cash from places other than advertising and better the platform as a whole.
Botha is confident in Musk’s capabilities and has supported him in other ventures as well. Musk hired Botha 20 years ago to work for a company now known as Paypal. Botha has also invested in two of Musk’s other companies—SpaceX and The Boring Co.
“Elon has succeeded in many different industries,” Botha says. “He’s an incredible first-principles thinker.”
Botha did research on the company speaking to both current and former Twitter employees in the beginning stages of the deal.
Botha also said he had spoken to Musk about potential changes to the Twitter business, including payments integration, and believed that Musk could address issues around account verification, such as abuse and spam, and introduce new monetization strategies such as using subscriptions, according to Wall Street Journal writer Berber Jin.
Botha remains a confident investor in Musk and his Twitter deal and thinks that Musk can make Twitter very successful.
Musk and Twitter Background
The full timeline between Elon Musk and Twitter is long.
It all started in April, Elon Musk announced that he held a 9.2% stake in Twitter, which made him the social-media company’s largest shareholder. Twitter’s stock price soared 25% after the announcement.
Later that month, the billionaire entrepreneur offered to buy all of Twitter at $54.20 per share—equaling about $44 billion. He said he originally invested in the platform because he believes it is failing in its potential to be the leading platform for free speech around the globe. In fact, he asked his 2 million followers if Twitter adhered to principles of free speech, and 70% said “no.”
In July, Musk decided to back out of the deal, claiming there were too many fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has since sued Musk in Delaware Court of Chancery to complete the deal and requested the trial to take place in September. Musk, on the other hand, wanted to delay the trial until February 2023, stating that a case of this size takes time to prepare. Twitter was granted its wish of an expedited trial, with Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the presiding judge, setting a five-day trial for October.
Musk then countersued Twitter, stating his reason for the termination was due to Twitter not being upfront about the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Then, Elon Musk and his legal team subpoenaed Twitter’s founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, to get him to release documents that provide accurate information on bots and spam accounts on the social-media platform and now these documents have come out from Zatko and Musk and his lawyers have subpoenaed him as well.
Then, Musk’s text messages were revealed in court filings and it showed that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey tried to facilitate Musk’s Twitter takeover, which led to Musk officially reverting back to his original deal to buy the social-media company.