Twitter no longer exists as a company after owner Elon Musk merged it with another entity called X Corp, in a move seen to signal his goal to turn the social media platform into an “everything app.” A court filing from April 4th shows that Musk’s X Corp. has officially absorbed Twitter Inc.
Soon after purchasing Twitter, Musk made a tweet claiming that the purchase would accelerate the creation of the “everything app”.
“Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” he said.
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The acquisition of came to light after court documents were made public in the lawsuit case between Laura Loomer and Twitter, now part of X Corp.
According to Joe Toscano, the lawsuit is forcing the defendant to submit documents in which the acquisition was disclosed making X Corp the new defendant. X Holdings Corp, which was established in April 2022 by Elon Musk, is the parent corporation of X Corp.
“Twitter Inc. has been merged into X Corp. and no longer exists,” stated the court filing.
“X Corp. is a privately held corporation. Its parent corporation is X Holdings Corp. No publicly traded corporation owns 10% or more of the stock of X Corp. or X Holdings Corp.”
An “X” obsession
Musk has revealed little on the matter, but gave a hint when he tweeted “X.” It seem the letter X represents more to the billionaire than just a letter of the alphabet.
In 1999, he founded X.com, which later became PayPal. The letter X has since appeared on his other business ventures including SpaceX, Tesla’s Model X car, and three X Holdings corporations. Even the SEC named his Twitter takeover Project X, while his son is named X Æ A-12.
Whether X will be a serious endeavor, or a whimsical experiment, remains to be seen. But Musk has been hinting at his plans for X for months, saying that he wants to create an app that can do everything from messaging to payments to shopping to ride-hailing.
NEWS: Twitter is now X Corp. Twitter Inc. no longer exists. pic.twitter.com/G76PClL0xg
— X News Daily (@xDaily) April 11, 2023
He has compared X to WeChat, the popular Chinese app that offers a variety of services on one platform. Musk has also said that he hopes X will become the biggest financial institution in the world, and that it could reach a valuation of $250 billion.
The name change from Twitter to X may be a sign that Musk is serious about transforming the social media platform into something more. However, it is unclear what this will mean for users and content of Twitter.
Some have speculated that Musk may want to fold all his other companies, such as SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and The Boring Company, into X as well. Others have wondered how Musk will handle the challenges of moderation, privacy, and security on such a massive app.
Is Musk killing Twitter?
The latest news on the global social media platform comes following another of Musk’s “weird” stunts in his tenure as CEO. He replaced the Twitter bird logo with a Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu logo and also got into trouble with the landlord at Twitter’s headquarters when he erased the “w” from Twitter signage. The building was then left marked “Titter.”
Journalist Dave Troy tweeted that such moves and many others, such as the company’s press team responding only with a poop emoji, were signs that Musk was about to “kill off a beloved global brand.”
“Anyway, if you’re about to kill off a beloved (?) global brand, you might screw around with the logos and signage and replace it with meme dogs and scatological humor,” tweeted Dave.
Twitter users took to the platform and expressed their feelings, questioning “what fresh hell is this?”
Others think it’s the beginning of the end for the social media platform and chided “he has killed the bird.”
and then