With Elon Musk making his formal offer to out-right buy Twitter, liberal media defender and CNN+ host Brian Stelter appeared desperate on Thursday’s Reliable Sources Daily as he looked for other “tech players” to step in and make their own offers. He even suggested that Musk would turn Twitter into a less-successful social media site such as “Parlor or Rumble.”
“Elon Musk is saying Twitter needs to be transformed, so he’s offering to it. He’s offering to buy the company for about $43 billion and take it private. Make no mistake this is a hostile takeover bit rattling Silicon Valley,” Stelter warned in a very sober tone.
After admitting Musk’s offer is “higher than Twitter’s closing price on Wednesday” and “a lot higher” than when” he became a shareholder last week, Stelter brought on Puck News co-founder William Cohan and tried to argue that Musk’s offer wasn’t enough because Twitter’s stock price was higher over a year ago:
But the stock was up at 70 even $80 12-14 months ago. Does that signal to investors there’s a lot of unlocked potential in Twitter and if they just get rid of Elon Musk and get rid of this problem, they can get back to there?
“[W]hat the stock was whatever it was 18 months ago at its all-time high is not relevant anymore,” Cohan broke the bad news to him. “What’s relevant is where the stock was before he started buying, where the stock was before he made his offer. As you pointed out, both are up, you know, 50-plus percent. That’s the relevant data point.”
Growing more desperate, Stelter openly hoped that another “tech player” would interject, but Cohan had more bad news:
STELTER: Bill, why wouldn’t Apple or some other tech player swoop in and take control of Twitter right now?
COHAN: Look, Brian, they certainly could. But, you know, you have to look at this as a practical matter.
STELTER: Tell us.
COHAN: I mean; Apple is a unique world. It’s a world of Apple. You really want to dilute that with Twitter and the controversy that Twitter generates on a daily basis? No. Apple is a beautiful closed system, why muddy it up?
“Who else? Google, you can say the same thing about. Possibly Facebook but I just don’t see it. Microsoft’s got its hands full with Activision Blizzard; that’s a $70 million deal,” Cohan noted.
Cohan did admit that blue-check journalists were only on Twitter for the drama and warn (or promised) that they would all leave the platform if Musk “radicalizes it and brings back Trump or does other things that he’s talked about[.]”
Stelter then suggested Musk would tear down Twitter and turn it into “Parlor or Rumble or one of those right-wing alternatives.”
A few minutes later, Stelter spoke with Bloomberg senior executive editor Brad Stone who suggested Musk’s offer (which included an official SEC filing), was just an act. “I have a hard time seeing this as anything other than a public performance by Elon,” he scoffed. Stone also suggested Musk was “addicted to the attention that comes with a dramatic public performance.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN+’s Reliable Sources Daily
April 14, 2022
11:01:41 a.m. EasternBRIAN STELTER: If you can’t beat them, buy them? Elon Musk is saying Twitter needs to be transformed, so he’s offering to it. He’s offering to buy the company for about $43 billion and take it private. Make no mistake this is a hostile takeover bit rattling Silicon Valley.
This higher than Twitter’s closing price on Wednesday. It’s a lot higher than when Musk started to buy up shares in the company. The stock was up big in pre-market trading but it is largely leveled off. It’s clear that some investors are not taking this very seriously. But the Twitter board has to.
Musk putting it simply in a tweet, saying ‘I made a bid.’ But it’s not simple at all. He’s saying to the Twitter board, take my deal or I might sell my shares and tank your stock. So, the board of Twitter is in a very public fight with the richest man in the world.
(…)
11:03:44 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: But the stock was up at 70 even $80 12-14 months ago. Does that signal to investors there’s a lot of unlocked potential in Twitter and if they just get rid of Elon Musk and get rid of this problem, they can get back to there?
WILLIAM COHAN (co-founder Puck News): No, I don’t agree with that. I mean, what the stock was whatever it was 18 months ago at it’s all-time-high is not relevant anymore. What’s relevant is where the stock was before he started buying, where the stock was before he made his offer. As you pointed out, both are up, you know, 50-plus percent. That’s the relevant data point.
(…)
11:05:51 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: Bill, why wouldn’t Apple or some other tech player swoop in and take control of Twitter right now?
COHAN: Look, Brian, they certainly could. But, you know, you have to look at this as a practical matter.
STELTER: Tell us.
COHAN: I mean; Apple is a unique world. It’s a world of Apple. You really want to dilute that with Twitter and the controversy that Twitter generates on a daily basis? No. Apple is a beautiful closed system, why muddy it up?
Who else? Google. You can say the same thing about. Possibly Facebook but I just don’t see it. Microsoft’s got it’s hands full with Activision Blizzard; that’s a $70 million deal.
(…)
11:07:31 a.m. Eastern
COHAN: Well, just one other thing. You know, he’s in a tough situation too because if he—if he changes – One of the things that makes Twitter so much fun and why journalists like us are involved with this to such an extent is because of the daily sort of controversy and fights.
But if he, you know, radicalizes it and brings back Trump or does other things that he’s talked about doing and half the audience leaves, then it’s just going to be an echo chamber and he’s going to be the king of nothing.
STELTER: It’s going to be like Parlor or Rumble or one of those right-wing alternatives.
(…)
11:11:24 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: Where’s your head at about this? This could be the biggest tech story of the year. Where’s your head at right now?
BRAD STONE (Bloomberg News, senior executive editor): Right. What a morning. Thanks, Brian.
You know, I have a hard time seeing this as anything other than a public performance by Elon. When you look at his career, his mission at Tesla to create sustainable energy transportation, or SpaceX to make humanity a multi-planetary species, I just have a very hard time seeing how the rehabilitation of a relatively small social network with 240 million very insular users really fits in the span of his career.
(…)
