This would make sense. His affiliations with state governments, which he plays against each other when looking to set up somewhere, would be reinforced if he could control the conversation. Then there’s China, where he’s the one beholden to the government, and he could offer some control to help shape their international image in return for just access to cheap labour and an export market, or to the Saudis where he can always find more funds.

Why would they "take it down" when anyone with even a modicum of business knowledge would assume a better replacement would be created and take it's place. This making the next version of Twitter even harder to control.

Taking it over and controlling the content on it is/was the smart play, especially if you're going to fork over the $ to buy it outright.

Stop trying to justify Elon's shit business decisions. He can just be a fucking moron that got lucky with a few strategic purchases.

if the goal is to collapse the business they would have done it a lot faster

This

I wonder if they made the same arrangement with him to get him to ruin electric cars - and then were surprised when people kept buying Teslas anyway.

interested in building a great big echo chamber for his own twisted ideas.

Then he should've, y'know...built one, instead of buying one that was already built and destroying it.

Then again I've never been on Twitter, so I can just sit back and snack on the popcorn with Michael on this one.