Talking Tech: Elon Musk offers $41.3 billion to buy Twitter and take it private
Welcome to Thursday, Talking Tech readers. Jayme Deerwester from The Daily Money here, subbing for Brett Molina while he enjoys a well-deserved vacation.
We'll start with Elon Musk, who's decided he'd rather have all of Twitter than his existing 9% stake in the social media platform. On Thursday, Twitter submitted a regulatory filing notifying the Securities and Exchange Commission that the Telsa CEO made a $41.3 billion offer to acquire the company and take it private.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk wrote in his bid letter. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
Twitter users were on both sides of the spectrum when it came to Musk's offer, with some saluting the billionaire for attempting to save free speech while others tweeted the "end was near."
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Thursday's tech tip
Still haven't filed but looking for a good deal on online tax services? We did some comparison shopping to see where you can still file for free and what the big names like TurboTax and H&R Block – and lesser-known players like Cash App and TaxSlayer – are charging for federal and state returns this year.
Bonus tip: If you're annoyed with the IRS because after failing to process your 2020 return and issue your refund, it rejected your 2021 return, too, we have a fix for you. When asked to enter your adjusted gross income from last year to verify your identity, enter "0" instead of copying over the figure from last year's 1040.
Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for reading!
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.