Elon Musk - Afrikan Heroes

Elon Musk Hints at Reduced Offer Price for Twitter

May 17, 2022

Maverick entrepreneur Elon Musk is stoking wild speculation that he could seek to renegotiate his takeover of Twitter, saying a viable deal at a lower price wouldn’t be “out of the question”.

Twitter shares briefly pared losses in afternoon trading. The stock has been dropping on concern that Musk could walk away from the US$44-billion acquisition altogether. That concern has grown over the past week as Musk has questioned Twitter’s publicly disclosed data on the percentage of spam and fake accounts on its social media service.

Musk pressed further on that front Monday at a Miami tech conference, estimating that fake users make up at least 20% of all Twitter accounts. That was his low end of his estimate on the number of Twitter bots, and he asked rhetorically if the number could be as high as 90%, according to a live-streamed video of his remarks posted by a Twitter user.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, last week said that his bid to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold” pending details about how many spam and fake accounts are on the platform. Over the weekend, he tweeted that Twitter’s legal team called to complain that he had violated their non-disclosure agreement. Twitter has declined to comment.

Musk spoke at a conference hosted by a podcast called “All-In” run by Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks and David Friedberg. The $7 500 (R120 000)/person event was sold out, and organisers said journalists were excluded from attending. Musk appeared at the Miami summit via video conference.Musk began buying Twitter shares in January and disclosed a 9.2% stake in the company on 4 April. Twitter’s board accepted Musk’s $44-billion bid to buy the company and take it private on 25 April, but the deal has yet to close and Twitter’s shares are trading far below Musk’s offer. One theory is that Musk is angling to pay a lower price for Twitter by raising the issue of fake accounts

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Musk Speaks About Future at Tesla

May 12, 2022

Maverick entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk has said that he will stay at the electric car company as long as he is useful amid investor concerns that buying Twitter would distract him from his job at Tesla. He also said China’s Covid-19 lockdown measures would not be “a significant issue in the coming weeks” at a time when its Shanghai factory is struggling to ramp up production following a suspension last month.

When asked about how long he expects to stay at Tesla, he said: “As long as I can be useful.” He was speaking at the FT Future of the Car 2022 conference on Tuesday.

In late April, Musk clinched a deal to buy Twitter for US$44-billion in cash in a transaction that sparked concerns that the social media platform would divert Musk’s attention from Tesla, SpaceX and other companies. He recently sold $8.5-billion worth of his Tesla shares and plans to borrow against some Tesla stock to help finance the Twitter deal.

Musk is expected to become Twitter’s temporary CEO after closing the deal, according to a source familiar with the matter. Musk tweeted in December that he was “thinking of” leaving his jobs and becoming an influencer full-time, although it was not clear whether he was being serious about quitting his roles.

He also said last July that he has tried “very hard not to be the CEO of Tesla, but I have to or frankly Tesla is going to die”. Musk also said he does not see “a ton of merit in combining” Tesla, SpaceX and other affiliates under one umbrella, saying they have different objectives and shareholder bases.

Tesla operated its Shanghai plant well below capacity early this week, after reopening it in late April after a 22-day closure.

“I had conversations with the Chinese government in recent days and it’s clear that the lockdowns are being lifted rapidly,” he said.

The car maker’s sales in China had already slumped by 98% in April from a month earlier, data released by the China Passenger Car Association showed, underscoring the hit from China’s hard Covid-19 lockdowns.

He said Tesla does not expect to open additional factories in China in the near future, adding that it will expand its Shanghai factory. He said China is a significant market, but expected China to account for about 30% of Tesla’s total market in the long term.

Asked if China would interfere and block Tesla’s operations in the country due to Musk owning Twitter, the billionaire said: “I’ve seen no indication of that effect.”

He also said Tesla is open to buying a mining company if necessary. He expected constraints in lithium production in about three years, adding that raw materials are one of the problems to reaching its goal of selling 20 million vehicles by 2030, from fewer than a million last year. He said that target is “an aspiration” not a “promise”.

Musk believes the biggest constraints to raw materials is equipment necessary to convert raw materials like lithium, nickel and iron into battery-grade materials, adding that Tesla is working with suppliers to address the issue.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Musk Posts Poll for Edit Button on Twitter

April 5, 2022

Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a Twitter poll on Monday, asking users if they wanted an edit button. The poll comes after Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in Twitter earlier in the day, worth nearly US$3-billion, that made him the social media platform’s largest shareholder.

“Do you want an edit button?” Musk asked in the tweet.

Replying to Musk’s poll, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted that the consequences of the poll will be important. “Please vote carefully,” he said.

On 1 April, Twitter had tweeted a message on its official account, saying it was working on the long-awaited “edit” feature. When asked if the tweet was a joke, the company had then said: “We cannot confirm or deny but we may edit our statement later.”

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Elon Musk Buys 9.2% of Twitter

April 4, 2022

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter, a regulatory filing showed on Monday, sending the micro-blogging site’s shares soaring 16% in pre-market trading.

In late March, the Silicon Valley billionaire said he was giving “serious thought” to building a new social media platform.

Musk was responding to a Twitter user’s question on whether he would consider building a social media platform consisting of an open source algorithm and one that would prioritise free speech and where propaganda was minimal.

Musk, a prolific user of Twitter himself, has been critical of the social media platform and its policies of late. He has said the company is undermining democracy by failing to adhere to free speech principles.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Starlink Set to Deliver Worldwide Internet from Orbit

July 1, 2021

Plans by satellite network – Starlink – owned by maverick billionaire inventor Elon Musk is reportedly on track to deliver broadband internet everywhere on Earth except for its two poles by August of this year. The Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) launched more than 1,500 satellites so far and is running Starlink operations in about a dozen countries. However, the financial investment for these operations has been and will continue to be, steep.

Musk said during a presentation at the Mobile World Congress (MWG) on Tuesday that SpaceX’s total investment in the network will be between, brace yourself, $5-Billion and $10-billion before cash flow becomes positive.

This is only the beginning, with Musk adding that an additional $20-billion or $30-billion may be needed in the longer term to maintain Starlink’s competitive position. Currently, Starlink has more than 69,000 active users, with Musk claiming that the service may reach half a million in the next 12 months.

SpaceX through Starlink aims to offer broadband internet to as much as 5% of the world’s population where conventional fibre or wireless networks are unable to reach. News24 reports that Musk has signed two deals with “major country” telecom operators but withheld names since the tech mogul is “in discussions with more.”

The satellite, low-Earth orbit-based service’s network moves about 30 terabits (3.75 terabytes) of data per second, and Musk said he’s targeting a user latency – or network response time – of less than 20 milliseconds. Musk’s company is set to launch a new version of Starlink’s satellites next year that will have inter-satellite laser links to help them cover polar regions.

Starlink’s engineers are also currently developing a new ground terminal to stem losses. The dishes customers are currently installing to access Starlink’s internet on rooftops cost more than $1000 to make but only retail at half that, Musk says.

When asked what his future goals were for Starlink, Musk jokingly said “Our goal is not to go bankrupt.” If Musk can provide a stable, fast internet in places where other providers can’t reach, and he can compete with prices in regions where they can, then maybe Starlink will do just that.

“Step No. 1 for Starlink is don’t go bankrupt. If we succeed in not going bankrupt then that’ll be great and we can move on from there,” he said.

There are many areas in Africa that are devoid of internet coverage due to their remote or rural nature. In Ethiopia, which has a population of over 100 million people, only about 20% have access to the internet, less than 40% have a mobile phone and only 5.8% of the people use social media. This is due to both the remoteness of some regions in the country and also due to the lack of ICT infrastructure.

A satellite service like Starlink could be a missing key to closing the digital divide in Africa and providing stable, fast internet to the people of those regions, price point depending.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry