{"product_id":"character-limit-how-elon-musk-destroyed-twitter","title":"Character Limit by Kate Conger \u0026 Ryan Mac","description":"\u003ch1\u003eCharacter Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter by Kate Conger \u0026amp; Ryan Mac\u003c\/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRising star New York Times technology reporters, \u003cstrong\u003eKate Conger and Ryan Mac, \u003c\/strong\u003etell for the first time the full and shocking\u003cstrong\u003e inside story of Elon Musk’s unprecedented takeover of Twitter\u003c\/strong\u003e and the forty-four-billion-dollar deal’s seismic political, social, and financial fallout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become inextricable from the social media platform that until 2023 was known as Twitter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStarted in the mid-2000s as a playful microblogging platform, \u003cstrong\u003eTwitter quickly became a vital nexus of global politics, culture, and media—\u003c\/strong\u003ewhere the retweet button could instantly catapult any idea to hundreds of millions of screens around the world, unleashing raw collective emotion like nothing else before. While its founder had idealistically dreamed of building a \"digital town square,\" he detested Wall Street and never focused on building a profitable business.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMusk joined the platform in 2010 and, by 2022, had become one of the site’s most influential users, hooking over \u003cstrong\u003e80 million followers \u003c\/strong\u003ewith a mix of provocations, promotion of his companies, and attacks on his enemies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo Musk, Twitter—once known for its almost absolute commitment to free speech—had badly lost its way. He blamed it for the proliferation of what he called the \u003cstrong\u003e“woke mind virus”\u003c\/strong\u003e and claimed that the survival of democracy and the human race itself depended on the future of the site.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn January of 2022, Musk began secretly accumulating Twitter stock.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBy April, he was its largest shareholder, \u003c\/strong\u003eand soon after, made an unsolicited offer to purchase the company for the unimaginable sum of $44 billion dollars. Backed into a corner, Twitter’s board accepted his offer—but Musk quickly changed his mind, forcing Twitter to sue him to close the deal in October.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe\u003cstrong\u003e richest man on earth controlled one of the most powerful media platforms \u003c\/strong\u003ein the world—but at what price? Before long Twitter would be gone for good, replaced by something radically different, as Musk remade the company in his own image from the ground up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story of the showdown between Musk and Twitter and his eventual takeover of the company is unlike anything in business or media that has come before. In vivid, cinematic detail, \u003cstrong\u003eConger and Mac follow the inner workings of the company as Musk lays siege to it, \u003c\/strong\u003efirst from the outside as one of its most vocal users, and then finally from within as a contentious and mercurial leader.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMusk has shared some of his version of events, but \u003cstrong\u003eConger and Mac have uncovered the full story through exclusive interviews, unreported documents, and internal recordings at Twitter following the billionaire’s takeover. \u003c\/strong\u003eWith unparalleled sources from within and around the company, they provide a revelatory, three-dimensional, and definitive account of what really happened when Musk showed up, spoiling for a brawl and intent on revolution, with his merciless, sycophantic cadre of lawyers, investors, and bankers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"\u003eThis is the defining story of our time told with uncommon style and peerless rigor. In a world of viral ideas and emotion, who gets to control the narrative, \u003cstrong\u003ewho gets to be heard, and what does power really cost?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bust-Down Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50292666138939,"sku":"059365613X","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0855\/2077\/7531\/files\/9780593656136.jpg?v=1776165217","url":"https:\/\/bustdownbooks.com\/products\/character-limit-how-elon-musk-destroyed-twitter","provider":"Bust-Down Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}