Elon Musk teases turning Twitter into ‘everything app’ like China’s WeChat
By Carl Samson
Elon Musk hinted at the creation of an “everything app” shortly after once again offering to buy Twitter for $44 billion.
The world’s richest man, 51, first sought to buy the microblogging platform for said price in April. However, he tried to back out from the deal two months later, triggering a legal battle that experts said would ultimately have resulted in his loss.
On Monday, the Tesla chief made the U-turn in a letter sent by his lawyer to Twitter’s legal team. In it, he expressed his intent to close the original deal, which was valued at $54.20 per share.
Musk tweeted Tuesday night that the buyout will accelerate the development of “X,” which he described as “the everything app.” X Holdings I, Inc. and X Holdings II, Inc., which are mentioned in the letter, are expected to absorb Twitter once the acquisition is complete.
Musk’s history with the letter “X” dates back to his online bank, X.com, which merged with Confinity to create PayPal in 2000. He re-acquired the domain in 2007 for an undisclosed amount.
The surprise teaser quickly sprung speculations about products or services X may offer. Some believe it will be a larger social media platform, while others suspect it will be “the death of Amazon.”
Meanwhile, some referred to Musk’s vision of a WeChat outside of China. There, the app serves as a social networking site, an instant messaging service, a gaming network, a news portal, a payments processor, an e-commerce hub and a ride-hailing platform.
“There’s no WeChat equivalent out of China,” Musk told Twitter employees in a town hall meeting in June. “There’s a real opportunity to create that.”
One Twitter user said it may be easier to start X from scratch. In response, Musk estimated that the Twitter buyout “probably accelerates X by three to five years, but I could be wrong.”
As of this writing, X.com contains nothing but a small letter “x” on a white background; however, Musk’s fans are thrilled that he has “marked the spot.”
Twitter is currently discussing Musk’s offer, according to the Washington Post. However, its lawsuit remains active and will likely continue until the deal is officially closed.
“Twitter is probably going to say, ‘look, we definitely want to engage you on this … But we’ve still got a trial on Oct 17 and until this is signed, sealed and delivered, we’ve got to get ready for trial,” Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia Law School, told CNN Business.
Featured Image via Tesla
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