Tuesday, April 12, 2022

BILLIONAIRES BLUFF OVER THE POOR
Jeff Bezos responds to Elon Musk's poll asking if Twitter HQ should be converted into homeless shelter

Adam Sabes
Sun, April 10, 2022

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos responded to Elon Musk's Twitter poll asking if the social media giant's headquarters should be converted to a homeless shelter.

"Convert Twitter SF HQ to homeless shelter since no one shows up anyway," Musk asked Twitter users on Saturday.

ELON MUSK PURCHASES STAKE IN TWITTER AFTER SLAMMING ITS APPROACH TO 'FREE SPEECH'

Musk recently became Twitter's biggest shareholder, disclosing a 9.2% stake in the company on April 4.

91.5% of people who responded to Musk's poll voted yes.

"Or do portion. Worked out great and makes it easy for employees who want to volunteer," Bezos responded.

ELON MUSK FLOATS TURNING TWITTER'S HEADQUARTERS INTO A HOMELESS SHELTER

Amazon houses a homeless shelter in its Seattle, Washington headquarters, which occupies part of the building.

Mary’s Place Family Center in The Regrade opened in early March 2020 and provides "shelter and support" for families experiencing homelessness.

The shelter has the space to accommodate up to 200 people every night, and serves food to individuals who are temporarily living in the shelter.

The space also has a health clinic, offices, computer labs, and offers pro-bono legal clinics.

Marty Hartman, Mary's Place Executive Director, said that the space was a "saving grace" as it opened in the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This new shelter, opening when it did, has been our saving grace. It was our Amazon family, that recognized what we needed before we ever realized it, and this space ensures we don’t have to return families to homelessness during this unprecedented and trying time," Hartman wrote.

Bezos said in an Instagram post when the shelter opened that it would help families get back on their feet.

"This shelter spans eight floors — including a health clinic and critical tools to help families in need get back on their feet. Thanks to Mary’s Place for their partnership in bringing this creative solution to life," Bezos wrote in an Instagram post when the shelter opened.


Musk turns down a seat on Twitter’s board leaving the door open for him to pursue a hostile takeover



Nicholas Gordon
Mon, April 11, 2022, 

Elon Musk won’t be joining Twitter’s board after all.

In an announcement on late on Sunday U.S. time, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal revealed that the Tesla CEO had turned down an invitation to join the company’s board.

News of Musk's decision comes almost a week after an earlier statement by Agrawal that Musk would be joining Twitter's board—which came a day after Musk revealed that he taken a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the social media platform's largest shareholder.

According to Agrawal, the company was set to make Musk’s board appointment official on Saturday, “contingent on a background check and formal acceptance.” Agrawal said that the company was “clear about the risks” of bringing the Tesla CEO on the board, yet said Twitter believed that “having Elon as a fiduciary of the company…was the best path forward.”

https://twitter.com/paraga/status/1513354622466867201


By turning down the appointment, Musk is now free to expand his stake in Twitter. If Musk had accepted the seat on Twitter's board, he would have been limited to a maximum stake of 14.9% in the company.

Without that limit, Musk could now—in theory—pursue a hostile takeover by buying the company outright. A move his extraordinary wealth comfortably enables him to do.

"Twitter is more vulnerable than some of its Internet peers to outside pressure because its founders don't have special voting control," Justin Post, director of equity research at Bank of America Securities, wrote in a note published last week after Musk revealed his stake in the platform.

As of publication time, Elon Musk is still listed as a member of Twitter's board of directors.

Since publicly revealing his investment in Twitter, Musk has tweeted several thoughts about the company’s services, including a poll gauging interest in an “edit” button, and has floated the idea that users might pay for Twitter’s premium service using the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

On Saturday morning—the same day that Agrawal suggests Musk turned down the board seat—Musk tweeted “Is Twitter dying?” and noted that several of the most followed Twitter accounts “tweet rarely and post very little content.”

According to Bloomberg, Musk’s disclosure of his stake in Twitter risked opening a new rift in the Tesla founder’s already strained relationship with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk revealed his stake later than U.S. equity regulations require, and originally used a form meant for passive investors who have no plan to influence a company's operations. Musk later refiled his disclosure to classify himself as an active investor.

Some Twitter employees feared Musk’s board appointment would hurt the company’s culture. One employee noted that Musk’s tweets would trigger an human resources investigation, and asked whether “board members are held to the same standard”, according to The Washington Post.

Agrawal asked employees in his Sunday memo to “tune out the noise.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com


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