Elon Musks Gets on Twitter's Board

free speech, and the world's most public town square. We will uncover this story from all angles through the hour, plus what's it like to work on a board with Elon Musk? Anyway. We'll be joined by former Tesla board member Steve Wesley, who will share the good, the that, and the unexpected that comes with having one of the world's most controversial innovators in the room. And he has fashioned himself as a free speech defender. But will must

be good or bad for free speech? Could this open the door to former President Trump being unbanned from the platform? Will debate, But first, Twitter share still soaring on all of this, up another two percent after spike Monday bloom works at Ludlow here to break it all down, and we can debate the long term impacts of this, but no question, it's been good for investors the last forty

eight hours. Yeah, exactly so, especially considering was a day where equities broadly will lower, especially tex stalks as yields to rising. That a lot of hawkish comments out of the Fed, which weighed on technology shares, and yet Twitter buck the trend right bam up another two percent, its biggest two day gain in record above on record above,

And here's the reality of the situation. If you come and me into my Bloomberg terminal, there's just a staggering volume of Twitter shares that have exchange hand over the last two days. I mean that chart, Emily says it all. Look at the right hand side of the screen. Two hundred sixteen million shares changing hands on Tuesday. That's after more than two hundred fifty million chairs change hands on Monday. Investors also taking a real interest on the retail side.

You look at many of the trading platforms like Fidelity for example. We'll touch on this later in the show, but a lot of demand for Twitter shares. His investors try and work out, well, is this a good thing? Elon Musk being on the board of the company. The direction travel on the stock certainly suggests so final chart is a little bit of irony and all of this. This is year to day Twitter and Tesla, and before the big surge, we've got a Monday around and other

two percent. On Tuesday, Twitter was down year Today it's now very firmly in positive territory year to day and as you can see, we're now outperforming Tesla on a year to date basis, which is higher. It's up around three percent. And it's interesting the direction of travel, the Elon Musk effects that you have about these stocks and how he uses Twitter is a met is and to communicate with investors, well, I'm sure we're gonna be paying a lot close attentions Twitter now and all right, blood law,

thank you now. And yet another plot twist, Twitter CEO Parague Aggerawall announcing Elon Musk has joined Twitter's board and Jack Dorsey, who set to leave the board in May, says he's happy about it. Musk's Twitter ownership will be capped at fourteen point nine percent as a board member to avoid him having undue influence, though he's currently at nine point two percent, which will give him plenty of influence. Enough, let's discuss the moving more with Teconomy founder David Kirkpatrick,

along with Bloomberg's Max Chafkin. Max. Elon Musk has often talked about his Tesla master plan. What do you think his master plan is for Twitter and how does it fit into Twitter's master plan for Twitter? Well, I think that Elon Musk really likes Twitter. He's obviously an enthusiastic user, and you can totally see why Twitter would want him on the board. I think for Musk, um the master plan is as you said about Tesla, and I think

what's what's happening here? Although I'm sure Ellen has some really big ideas for for Twitter, you know, around free speech, the I think the really the game behind this is protecting Tesla's most important, you know, marketing channel, and you know Ed mentioned it's Elon Musk's you know, sort of way of communicating with investors, of of just sort of raising enormous amounts of almost unlimited capital for Tesla. It's also this great way that he's been able to market

you know, both himself and the cars. And I think, you know, having a stake in that literally a seat on Twitter's board um is going to help him in the long term. You know, yesterday, Twitter's value, you know, went up a bunch of eight hundred million dollars or so would have been Musks gained. Tesla went up a whole lot more, you know, a whole lot less as a percentage. But but Musk made a lot more money

on Tesla. His money is still in Tesla, and I think we should still be thinking about it in those terms now. Looking at these tweets from Parague, Agawalla and Jack Dorrisey today, Parague tweeting, I'm excited to share where are pointing el on to our board? It became clear to us through conversations in recent weeks that he would bring great value to our board. Jack Dorsey then retweeting this, and what you can imagine is a coordinated effort saying

I'm really happy Ellen is joining the board. He cares deeply about our rule and Twitter's role in it. Parague and Ellen both lead with their hearts and they will be an incredible team. David, what do you make of their wholehearted embrace of this. Well, first of all, we know that Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk are good friends and they've sort of think alike in a lot of ways, although certainly Elon Musk is a much more impetuous person

than Jack Dorsey. But um, you know, you have to say, having the richest man in the world, one who's every move is attended to with such incredible attention, has got to be good for any company. Uh, it's certainly been good for Tesla. And I think that if he really cares about Twitter, which he must, although this is something we're really just learning that he cares about organizationally as

opposed to just being one of its greatest power users. Um, he's gonna certainly bring tremendous value to their deliberations about strategy, product design, etcetera. Now what kind of freedom do you think Elon Musk feels he is lacking on Twitter, given that he seems to have roamed there quite freely. Um, yeah, well, I think there's some risk though to to Elon's a

Twitter presents. First of all, he's somebody who's continually pushing the boundaries right and Twitter has been you know, aggressive or not aggressive, but but has made some moves in terms of trying to rein in um you know what it terms misinformation or hate speech and and that sort of thing. He's also in the middle middle of this very messy fight with the SEC over tweets that he sent,

you know, years ago. Tesla has this Twitter sitter, and right around the same time that Um Musk was acquiring these Twitter skate stakes, there's a court filing that drops where Musk is complaining about about his you know, being muzzled as he saw it by the SEC. So I could see it both, you know, as as partly as a protective action. You know, this is a way for him to ensure that this um stays put. Now, it'll be interesting, David, how this impacts the rest of the

social media landscape. There was quite a moment um. Elon Musk, in response to his question about an edit button, got a lot of feedback, including from Andrew Bosworth, who's now the CTO of Facebook, saying that they solved the question of editing on Facebook long ago. You just leave a log of the edit, Elon Musk responds, Facebook gives me

the Willie's What do you think? Having Elon in Twitter's corner, or at least on Twitter's board means for Facebook, well, I would reiterate that having him on your corner is going to be bad for your rivals. Um period Um. I would say, many of us find things that have happened on Facebook give us the willies in recent years. So I can understand why he would say that, and I do think Twitter, on balance has been a more

responsible platform than Facebook. Um. The confusing thing is his repeated statements are several times saying, you know, he wants free speech to be more allowed on Twitter, that he thinks it's it's gonna be more that it's maybe too restrictive, and it doesn't really make sense to me since he has never been restricted by Twitter itself. He's been restricted by the SEC, and I think he's had second thoughts about some of his own tweets. But um, you know,

I don't I think it's bad for Facebook. I do think maybe an edit function is a good idea for Twitter. I personally have trouble using Twitter. I'm a I just find it awkward and off putting in many ways. I'm an outlier in the tech journalism community in that way. But I can understand Twitter needs product improvements. Even Jack Dorsey says that all the time and doesn't make any bones about it. And yet Katie Stanton, longtime former Twitter veteran,

was on the show yesterday. She said, this is a pretty expensive way to add an edit button if that's what you want. Max. You know, as you point out, Elon Musk like likes making jokes, but he's rarely doing it just to joke. I mean, a steak is now worth for billion dollars. You have to be more than an edit button desire here, right right, And I think that's why, you know, David's pointing out withstanding um, Twitter's playing with fire here. I mean, Elon Musk is really

good at attracting attention. There's obviously we saw on that chart there is a large community of investors who will basically buy anything that he tells them to. And that's really good. But if but if Twitter has a bad quarter or you know, if Twitter loses its market value, you know, that's disastrous for Twitter's management team. And that's just like a blip on Elon Musk's radar. It doesn't

affect his long term visions or anything like that. So the fear, I think would be, this is somebody who has in the past had trouble raining himself in is very impetuous, and now all of a sudden, Twitter, this relatively small company, is attached to the Elon Musk train. So so it's gonna it's gonna ride that way for better and probably for So here's an open question, what does this mean for former President Trump? David who has

been banned from Twitter. I've asked Twitter executives CFO net Segal many times if there's a path for him to come back, and he has said no. Could this Could this open the door? David? Well, it's a very legitimate question, given, um, given the point that Musk has made about free speech, because the first thing you think of, if Twitter were more lax in enforcing its speech rules, the implication, number one implication would be that Trump might be allowed back on.

I don't think of Musk as a particular defender of Trump. I think he's in a libertarian by inclination, although he has a very complex mix of views. So I would say, if anything is positive for the president x president. But um, we can't know. There's so many things about this we can't know. The speed with which it all happened is dizzy. You know, it's it's I've just been thinking, what a weird thing. The richest man in the world is so incredibly impetuous. You never know what he's gonna do next.

It's like he's a professional global entertainer or something. So all the implications are going to be found out only through time. I'm afraid the plot has thickened indeed. David Kirkpatrick, founder of Teconomy, and Bloomberg's own Max Chafkin, thank you both. Coming up, we're gonna hear from a Republican Representative darryl Isa his thoughts on what musk means. First, free speech and what is it like working on a board with Elon Must school ask a former TESLA board member that

is next. This is Bloomberg. Well, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. I've had plenty to say about Twitter's handling a free speech on its platform, and for different reasons. Here's Republican Representative Darla Isa of California earlier with my colleague David Weston. I've known Elon must for a long time, and I watched him break a glass ceiling that kept him from competing in rockets and missiles. Uh, and he did so over a long period of time with his dedication.

He believes in sort of that free enterprise system, and so I think he's going to be a positive for a Twitter that has been airing on the side of less free speech. Uh. You might remember taking down things uh as misinformation that later proved to be true. I think he's going to look at it as no, we're We're going to be for free speech in a bigger way.

And I think that's positive for Twitter. It is positive for all of us who would like to see um social media be less about censoring and more about simply being a conduit for people's ideas, whether we disagree with them or not. So as I have been listening to Congress over the last couple of years, I hear two concerns. One is the one you just identified, and that is Twitter's role in saying who can talk and who can't talk.

And I understand you're saying Elon Musk will make it freer, he won't just prejuice in favor of his own point of view, but also in terms of concentration, there's a lot of concern about you have a trust responsibility as well. Are you concerned at all about this the wealthiest man in the world now having significant influence over Twitter. You know, uh ten doesn't run a company, um and you know there are two extreme anti oil people on Exog's board,

so uh you know. I think that it's the power of his argument that's going to be more important than in his actual vote, because he is going to be outnumbered essentially nine to one. But there is something else here at work, and that is that, yes, Twitter has a monopoly on one section, Facebook has a monopoly on

another section. These giants we are concerned about, but remember if they operate like your public utility, charging everyone the same amount to buy electricity and not shutting anyone off as long as the bill is paid, then the monopoly is pretty benign. And I think that's one of the concerns we have in Congress is not whether an entity has monopolistic power, but how they use that power, whether they have used it or simply have the luxury of

being the dominant force. That's been true in tech for a long time. I remember when Microsoft basically owned your ability to get on the Internet. That's not true today, but it did take looking at and making sure they were an honest broker in their tie ins uh some years ago. Republican Darryl is Sa They're of California, who himself has worked in tech and business. Well, how will having Elon Musk in the board influence Twitter's handling a

free speech, misinformation and so much more. Let's get to that question now with someone who worked on a board with Elon Musk for many years. Steve Wesley is the founder of the Wesley Group and was an early investor in Tesla and a former Tesla board member. Steve, great to have you back with us. So what is it like serving on a board with Elon Musk? Well, it's never boring. Look, I think this is a big win for Twitter. He's brilliant, he sees the future. He's a driver.

Look for sure, he's a bit temperamental and irascible, but he pushes people to be their best. He's also, of course, twitter It's greatest power user. So I think it's a good thing that he likes pushing boundaries. And my advice to Twitter executives is put on your track shoes now, because Elon is going to push you to pick up the pace all at all. I think that's a good thing for Twitter users and a good thing for Twitter investors. Ellen is his own biggest marketer. I wonder how that

could work to Twitter's advantage. Well, look, I think a case can be made. Did Ellen's reinventing twenty one century marketing? Just look what he did at Tesla. He had a marketing budget close to zero. He took every penny he could, even though we were a much smaller auto company, invested in innovation, making greater products. In contrast, the world's major auto companies GM for Toyota, spent billions it could have been spending on R and D in tired commercial campaign,

super Bowl ads and so on. And you just have to wonder how much further ahead would the major auto companies be if they'd done what are elon dated Tesla. So I think in a lot of ways he is the perfect poster boy for what some might call twenty century marketing, forming that direct relationship with your customer customer, and he's doing it all on Twitter. What's a better

advertisement than Twitter for Twitter than that? Well, he's gonna have a very direct relationship with Twitter's leadership and other board members. What do you imagine his relationship with Parague aggrawall, the new CEO will be well, it's not gonna be quiet. I think he's gonna push all of them. I mean, here we are, day one into this and he's already saying, hey, maybe it's time to to get that edit function in there. I think he's gonna shake things. Uh. I think that's

part of the future. In the old days used to say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The new mantra of the twenty one century is from Steve Jobs. If you're not busy obvious leading your own products, someone else he is. And I think Ela is gonna come in like he's gonna shake things up, and he's gonna simultaneously make a statement two CEOs of the other five fortune companies you need to form a direct relationship with your customers. Twitter is probably the most cost effective way

to do it. Look, Elan is not a chrismatic guy, slightly awkward. That he's genuine, he's real, he's authentic. I think a lot of other CEOs how to be taking note. Now, Elon Musk has used Twitter too, basically, as you say, replace his own marketing department. And I wonder how an investment in Twitter fits into the broader Musk portfolio. Do you think there's some broader end game in terms of how Twitter relates to Tesla and SpaceX and the boring

company hyper Loop for example. Well, look, Elon has a big picture guy, and I think what he's simply saying is I'm an innovator. I have transformed the American auto industry, the global auto industry, have transformed prediction in space. This old world marketing has got to go. CEOs of the future needed direct relationship where they can tell the truth in real time to their customers, not waged six months

for a lot of crazy ads. I think that's a step forward, and I think he's going to become a role model for a lot of other not just CEOs, but politicians. And I think having that direct relationship with the customer and the voter instead of the can adds that so many of us are used to is probably a net positive. But you're still going to have to manage it. Well, we'll see how they do. What do you think you a musk falls on Twitter's banning of

President Trump. So look, only Elon knows that, but a lot of people said, oh my gosh, he's a free market heater. Uh, he's gonna let Trump back on doing he wants. I don't think that's the case. Elon has higher standards. He holds people to a high standard. And look, the reality is that I say this for all of tech because someone who spent part of my life as an elected official and part of my life as a tech executive, Tech overall needs to hold a higher standard

for people telling the truth. They need to remove people who are telling flat outlies, They need to remove people who are inciting violence. So I believe and hope Kill set a higher standard that firms like Facebook can follow. On that note, though, I mean some would argue that Elon Musk has peddled his own version of the truth, for example the funding secured tweet, which got him in trouble with the SEC when funding wasn't secured. Look, Elon

is always pushing the boundaries. So he will be one of nine board members, uh On bar or on on the whole. I think he's going to push them to innovate in terms of setting government policy, what the standards are. I don't know if he'll be taking the lead on that. It's more of an innovator, more of a tech guy, but we'll see one thing. I can promise you it won't be boring. It won't be boring indeed, Steve Wesley, founder of the Wesley Group, former Tesla board member Steve

good to have you back with us. A few other stories we continue to watch. Amazon is buying dozens of rocket launches to deploy slate lights for its high speed internet service. The company will buy as many as eighty three launches from Aaron Space, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance. Amazon's license with the FCC requires it to launch at

least half its thirty two hundred satellites by July. And Mackenzie Scott has transformed American philanthropy in the last three years by giving away twelve point four billion dollars, often to overlooked causes. She's now stepping up her donations outside of the United States. Scott's latest giving spree three point nine billion dollars, including about sixty nonprofits based outside the US. These serving causes across five continents, from Micronesia to Brazil.

And I be am Banking on the lingering relevance of mainframe computers at a time when many businesses are moving to the cloud, the company has unveiled a new model designed for corporate data centers. IBM has been marketing itself as a key player to support data storage both on premise and in the cloud. Coming up, we'll have more on what Ela musk plans could be for Twitter and especially free speech. That's next, Mrs Bloomberg, Welcome back to

bloomber Technology and Emily Chang in San Francisco. Well, you've heard it from investors, to analysts, to Twitter's onn CEO and former CEO. There are a lot of opinions out there about what Elon Musk means for Twitter. Bloom Brooks and Ludlow has been taking a look at the markets view on it and d so far so good. Here is there any indication that this could be bad for investors? Yeah,

it's interesting. I mean the stock is held up for two days, right, only a two percent gain on Tuesday, but over the two days that's the biggest two day jump in Twitter's history as a public company. And what's more, you know, the broad range of analyst notes that came out in reaction to the news that Elon Musk had been first taking a stake in Twitter, but then second of all, been appointed as a board member were largely positive. You know, they basically range from the opinion that they'll

help he'll help Twitter by association. Right, he has some star power, the Elon Musk effect, but also he has good ideas. He has a track record of innovation which could help. But there's an interesting thing, M. There's a gap between what people see as him doing for the platform and what they see him doing for the stock. So coming into my Boomberg terminal and take a look at this chart, there's been a big pop in the stock. Right. You see that on the right hand side, which is

the white line. The blue line is the average analyst twelve month price target for Twitter, which you can see is around forty four dollars a share when we're currently trading at a share. What's interesting, some analysts even cut their price targets after the recent run up in the stock because they don't think there's that much upside to run. So this is gap in where people think that Elon Musk could take Twitter and where they see the stock

and going. And there's a further breakdown of that real quick MD, which is the influence of retail investors. I told you earlier in the show that around four sixty million shares of Twitter had changed hands over the last two days, but there's real insatiable retail investor appetite. These are the top names on Fidelities trading platform over the last set Tuesday's training session Twitter number one. More than ten thousand by orders for Twitter and around eight thousand,

six hundred for Tesla. The third company is Sunshine Bio, a bio company in pharmaceuticals. But clearly it's not just Wall Street looking at this and going what's Elon Musk going to do? But the retail investor, just as they've done with the test, the story, hang on Ela Musks every word had brought in over the last two sessions

as well. All right, my Ludlow, thank you. I want to stick with this and bring in our next two guests, Tim O'Brien, a senior columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, and Jennifer Greigl, Associate professor of Communication at Syracuse University. Tim, I want to start with you. Not only has Twitter added Elon Musk to their board, but brock Agawall said that they

have been talking to him for weeks. Why is that significant, Well, it's significant because Elon Musk took a stake in this company under the guys, essentially being a passive investor, which meant, if or if you're following that classic definition, uh, that he was merely stopping by and parking his money and was going to watch from the sidelines and not seek great changes or significant changes at the company, not do

things like sk a board seat, for example. Um, all of which was up in the air yesterday when this investment was disclosed. And then lo and behold, we find today that he has a board seat, and that Twitter CEO has said that they've been talking together for weeks, which certainly doesn't bear any hallmarks of a passive investor. I don't think anyone thought he would be a passive investor, uh in this. I think he's he is an activist

by nature. Um. But I also think it represents a little bit just another tiny chapter in an Elon Musk flouting his you know, thumbing his nose at convention and at SEC guidelines as he sees fit. He has had a long run in with the SEC about tweeting inside information or misleading information, and and and I said, I suspect this will be a little bit more fodder for the SEC to chew on now Musk has been positioning himself as a free speech defender. Professor Greigle, what do

you think that means for President Trump? In particular? Where does Musk or will Musk fall on this? This really isn't about free speech. If anything, Twitter has just become a little bit more about Elon's speech. You just saw a large portion of this company and gets to kind of steer what happens there now. If anything, he's figured out that this is a powerful platform. Maybe he took some notes from Mark Zuckerberg and others that you need

to have some influence over a platform. So I I think, if anything, the future for former President Trump is still TBD. But you know, I've never seen it as a band. It's a band for as long as those who are in control of the company wanted to be a band, and we just need to be You're realistic about that, Tim,

what's your response to that? In your column today, you refer to Ellen as a quote unquote world class troll because that's how he's used Twitter historically and for as much you know, he defines himself as a self described free speech absolutist, and yet he's routinely over the years tried to shut down his critics, uh, silence them. He's used Twitter to savage them, to make fun of them. He's used Twitter as a troll to to go after people. He's used Twitter to talk up his own investments and

things like cryptocurrencies. Um and so this whole time that he's in the recent weeks where he said that Twitter is throwing blockades in the way of free speech and that maybe he needs to um launch a new platforms and the enticing things he put out there prior to this investment being is closed really want run counter to his entire personal experience on Twitter. He has been unfettered

on Twitter. Um. But Elon Musk is a libertarian, and I think he has a posture uh that is part of the far right site guys right now that the social media platforms have turned against conservatives, when in fact, I think the social media platforms have finally woken up to some of the virtues of policing divisive propaganda, which is I think a different thing than free speech in certain cases. So hang on, Tim, We've actually got some

breaking news now. Twitter has just announced via a tweet from its Twitter Communications account that they are the company is working on an edit button. Internally, this is a feature that they have been testing um and testing and working on since last year. Tim Well, you know, Elon Musk tweeted last night after his investment was disclosed that he'd really like to see an edit button a Twitter.

So I suppose this is Twitter making a big bowl public statement that they're responsive to what Elon Musk wants to see. But of course they've been working on this for a long time. If they step up their pace on things like better user experiences, better communication tools on Twitter, because Elon Musk is there, that's great, and that's good

for investors, and it's good for its users. That's again, that's apart from what he might do to either curtail or or pervert actual free speech on the platform itself. Professor Griggle Eileen aside, how do you think an edit button would change the nature of Twitter? I mean, this is the company. This is something that users, some users have been asking for for a long time, but Twitter has always resisted. I believe in the name of uh

maintaining and protecting the authenticity of the platform. I don't think this is about typos, you know, like I I think he's trying to use this as a way to look like he's appealing to the public, that he's some type of like rebel leader, you know. But Elon Musk is about the only thing I'm sure of is that he's really good acute relating wealth. Um, and when that comes power. So you know, again, there's been some conversation about how Facebook lets you edit things too, and Facebook

and Twitter are not the same thing. Um. Last time I checked, journalists around the world have not been impetting Facebook posts in news stories. Um, and uh. I think it just would fundamentally kind of change what the platform is. But like, maybe that's what Ellen wants to do. I don't I don't know why he's taking a mistake in this, other than he's figured out that this is somehow going to help him serve his agenda. So we'll have to wait and see. But it will, I think, culturally change

what Twitter is, and maybe that's for the best. Maybe he wants to burn it down, and you know, maybe that's a good thing. At this point, it's it's just a bunch of CEOs, politicians, state actors and folks like exploiting this are competing the press. Maybe it's a maybe it's not that great anymore. To that point, Tim, in your article just this week where you suggest that Elon Musk could be bad for free speech, the venture capitalist Mark Andreason reposted it. Uh didn't seem to agree with

your premise. Elon Musk then commented, saying, uh that such an article is always good for a laugh. He confused the fact that your article written for Bloomberg was actually republished in the Washington Post. But what do you make of a quote unquote defender of free speech criticizing your free speech. Well, they're entitled to do that because I believe in free speech too, so I'm okay with that. I think that you know, Mark Andreason and and Elon

Musk are are cut from the same cloth. They're Silicon Valley titans who have a view of the world. I think that is pretty mechanistic and individualistic. There can be virtues to that, But I think when you're talking in the context of why they have an interest about the kind of speech that appears on Twitter, it has nothing actually to do with free speech, and as everything to do I think with their own biases being put to the test by the things that appear on Twitter. Tim O'Brien,

Bloomberg Opinion, Jennifer Gracle, professor at Syracuse University. So much uh, so much to continue to debate. Thank you both. Let's get to our crypto report now and come back to today's main story. Elon Musk joining Twitter's board. How would this shape the social platform's future? Will it bring the

elements of blockchain networks into Twitter? Let's talk about all of this and more with Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, and Kristen It's no secret that Twitter has been um bulking out some of its crypto features. They've got this a blue sky project that they've been exploring. But what do you make of Elon Musk's influence on the crypto community and how that could influence Twitter? Yeah,

I mean these are all great questions, Emily. I think Elon Musk's um news about him taking such a large steak and joining the board of Twitter is very important. I think I think one of the reasons is he really truly understands the value of cryptocurrency, whether it be uh, you know, bitcoin or doge coin. He has and he knows the value of open source networks, and he knows the value when you have many multiple minds thinking and building on how to create a better network. That's very

different than a centralized company like Twitter. UM. So what I think is going to be interesting is is he going to bring these elements of the crypto world, these anti censorship elements, the open source elements, and allow for a way for new people to come in and maybe import their own algorithm that could potentially go through and sort the news in the way that they want to be seen, not in the way that Twitter is dictating

that it be seen. So I do think there is a potential for innovation here, and you know, given that you know, we represent the crypto industry at the Blockchain Association, and we're hopeful that that by you know, bringing in this kind of mindset, that there will be new ways to to get this platform UM to a place that serves more more of its users, because it certainly is an incredibly powerful platform, and I would argue probably the

most powerful platform for sharing and receiving information and and just how important is Twitter do you believe to the crypto community. Obviously there's a strong and very passionate uh community of cryptocurrency supporters on Twitter. I mean, we call it crypto Twitter back in crypto topics are trending on Twitter because of the volume of these users there. Yeah, no, crypto Twitter is is a real thing. And it's really

interesting because what you have. Twitter enables developers all across the globe to debate whether or not they should make technological changes to open source networks. It's a forum for this kind of debate. It's it's really a public commons for exchanging ideas and a way for people that have very targeted and narrow interests to find one another and to build a community. And I think the crypto community uses Twitter perhaps more so than any other community or

ecosystem out there. Um. It's also an incredibly powerful tool for the crypto community. The if you look back to last summer in August, we had over forty phone calls generated to the US Senate over the course of five days because they shared a link on Twitter and it went viral. And you had um crypto Twitter influencers, you had members at the House and Senate tweeting these links.

You had celebrity influencers, you had business leaders. Um. You know, this is a tool for political activism, it's a tool for sharing and debating ideas. It's an incredibly important platform and I think it's one where concepts that we find every day in the crypto world will only improve the way that the platform can work. So I'm excited to be part of it. The SEC has obviously been paying attention to Elon Musk, and he's had some run ins with them before. How do you imagine the SEC is

watching this steak in Twitter his influence on Twitter in particular. Well, I think the SEC pays very close attention to what he does. They also pay very close attention to the crypto community. So um, definitely a lot of eyes going on out there. But listen, I think is you know, as long as he's transparent with what's going on and brings perhaps more transparency, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing for for him to be a part of it, and um, I don't think it should pos is any

problems um for the SEC at this time. But but yeah, I'm sure that they have to keep a close eye on him, just just like they do with many other people in the crypto space. They are most definitely watching. Kristin Smith, Executive director of the Blockchain Association, Thank you for joining us. I think he really believes he can do something really good for society with this platform. He's certainly making a statement, and it's a statement about censorship.

He he doesn't agree with censorship. UH for a smooth functioning democracy. I interpret this as a sign of just how influential Elon Musk is. Uh. There's nothing changed in the fundamental outlook for Twitter. I think this really just starts what's gonna be. I think a broader strategic initiative for Elon at Twitter. I think it's a very expensive way to get yourself an edit button. UM. I think it's a very interesting move. UM. Elon is obviously a power user. He knows a product well. He knows that

Twitter is the place for the world's conversation. It will lead to be our grule, changing the policy of the company to you know, really open source, uh the the censorship or or call people out on censorship, or it will be a management change. I don't know what's going to happen. Twitter chairers meantime have skyrocketed since the news of elon mistake in the company. But how long can the rally last? Brent, They'll have Jefferies joins us now he currently has a hold on the company and Brent,

are you sticking with it? Stating with the whole you had a big move, clearly a positive move for the company, not taking any way on that side, but when you have a thirty plus percent move, it's inbanding a lot of the fundamental improvement which we haven't seen yet. Uh is my friend mark me and he pointed out in the earlier segment. You know we I think many of us have been asking advertisers, you know, has any changed

and the answer is no. Uh. So clearly this is a bet on the future that they can take the foundation. You know, I've called this a a foundation of a great car. But Ellen knows how to put the pet u or the dog mode inside the car to let your dog in the car, that the whole user interface. In terms of what he's done in in the autle world, Uh, I think he could bring a lot to to this world. Uh. And I think it's he's gonna have no doubt to

the positive impact. It's gonna take time, and so investor by now we're betting not for the next four or two, but they're betting a year out that that that's going to have an improvement, which I think again is grateful long term, sure old their short term I think there's gonna be a a lot of all affilia the stock still, So here's a question. Will this materially change the game

for Twitter's business? I mean, there was an argument made earlier that Twitter could spend less on marketing because Elon Musk will do that for them via Twitter. But but but really, though, when you look at the balance sheet, how will this change? I don't know if it's a game changer. I mean, look, the board is stacked, and they have a phenomenal ward Brett Taylor from salesforce dot com. He's a broduct guy. Great the thumbs up for Facebook. I mean, he knows how to how to effectively create

amazing products. So they are surrounded by rooting at a body of people. And I think right now Twitter doesn't have an awareness issue. They have a usability each and that is what I think many of the advertisers and end users are still looking for better, better solutions from them. Advertisers. You know, one advertiser last week said it perfectly. Snap has had ten improvements of the platform in the last year. Twitter hasn't had that many in the decade. Okay, that

to me is the opportunity. And I think this is why he's betting a huge amount of his zone. Well one less than one percent is net worth a huge amount for all the rest of us the planet. Uh, he's put a big dollar amount in because he seeds the future three or five years that if they can make these changes and make it more usable and they can get you know today, right, there's over two three billion on Facebook's platform, you know, over two hund million

en users today. It's a tiny number relative to those are on other platforms. Right, what are the risks of bringing Elon Musk into the room? Big ideas can go haywire. Right, you can see some of these ideas. I've no doubt he's gonna have huge influence on the board and the manager team to make big, big bets. And anytime you make a big bet, it can flare off. But we we know that. Uh, we think he's gonna have a very positive impact. I don't I think one person's view

and opinion on this as a board member. Uh, you know, there's gonna be a lot of other voices. And I think it's it's run, it's it's gonna be running very well over time, I think, uh so, I don't think that. I think the risk right now is just stock a huge run in and beds near term fundamentals. Attorney. If fundentals don't turn the next quarter or two on, the investors are gonna gonna be be put on hold in the short term. I don't think there's a lot of

outside given that he's in. I think, you know, as we say, debab, don't be against must. You know you've got a nice floor probably put in in the short term given his arrival. But the risk is that the recent running the stock combined with this is gonna take selver course, this is not going to be an overnight experiment that that turns uh that turns out of you know, a perfect solution, but it is certainly going to be an entertaining one. Brent Fill of Jeffreyes, we are along

for that ride. Thank you. That does it. For this edition of Bloomberg Technology, make sure to tune in tomorrow will continue our coverage of Elon Musk's big steak in Twitter. Daphne Keller of Stanford will be joining us along with Bitcoin two that kicks off in Miami, will have a slew of special guests. I'm Emily Changing in San Francisco. This is Bloomberg