A New Player Enters the Arena In the Fight to Keep Elon Musk from Buying Twitter – Opinion

A lot of scrambling seemed to occur the moment Tesla CEO Elon Musk made the offer to buy up Twitter, and it’s very odd, to say the least. Big money dealers joined the fray to block the possibility of Musk opening up the doors to free ideas exchange.

As RedState previously reported, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal suddenly popped up and declared that he, a shareholder with a 5.2 percent stake in the company, would vote against Musk’s offer, prompting Musk to ask very publicly how much the Kingdom owns of Twitter both directly and indirectly, and what the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom and free speech are.

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t get a response.

Then, outright, a company intervened and purchased enough shares for Musk to become the largest shareholder. The New York Post reports that Thoma Bravo, a large private equity firm is currently working to offer Twitter its services.

It’s not clear how much Thoma Bravo might bid or when it might make an offer. The Post was told by a source that the company has an internal team working to complete the possible transaction.

“You are not far off,” a second source close to the situation said when asked by The Post if Thoma Bravo was working on a possible bid for Twitter.

Sources say Thoma Bravo may be Parag Arawal’s white knight, as Thoma Bravo is the CEO of the company.

Thoma Bravo’s sudden appearance is strange, but not unexpected.

What makes it strange is that Twitter isn’t typically something the equity firm, based in San Francisco and Chicago, engages in. Thoma Bravo invests in businesses-to-business, and not consumers-facing companies. However, Twitter’s board might be desperate to rescue Twitter from Musk’s grasp and Thoma Bravo might be the aforementioned white knight.

“Our private equity investment vehicles employ the same investment philosophy — to partner with and support existing management teams to help deliver solid operating results and drive innovation,” the company’s website reads.

As the New York Post reported, if Musk’s offer is rejected, the stock could take a dive in no small part because Musk sold his enormous shares, but Thoma Bravo could save it:

Twitter, if it rejects Musk’s offer, could see its share price collapse unless it had another option to reveal at the time of a possible rejection. That’s where a so-called white knight would come in.

Because of that, Thoma Bravo needs to move quickly — if it elects to move forward — to show the Twitter board it has a potentially friendlier alternative, sources told The Post.

If the mission statement from Thoma Bravo is true, Twitter’s management wouldn’t have to worry about being kicked to the curb and they can continue doing what they do best, restricting conversation and censoring whatever they don’t like.

Musk would probably clean up the place after acquiring Twitter and ensure that there is free speech and free expression. The likely outcome would be the need to replace everyone from top to base, something Twitter management would love to avoid.

Musk’s fight to free Twitter from social media dictatorships is more about expressing oneself freely in the actual town square. It will be fascinating to see Musk’s response in the next days and, more importantly, which side wins.

Regardless of the outcome, we will know where the people who resisted Musk’s attempts to free the public better, and where their hearts really are.

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