Elon Musk continues to toy with his $44 billion plaything Twitter after it was revealed the social media company has undergone a merger into what will be the “everything app”, ominously named X Corp. The news of this merger also offers some insight into why the billionaire painted over the “W” in the Twitter sign on his HQ’s building and tweeted, “Our landlord at SF HQ says we’re legally required to keep sign as Twitter.” Twitter is no more.
It was back in October of last year that Musk stated part of the reason behind his intent to buy Twitter, posting, “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” and in recently revealed court document filings it looks like he’s staying true to his word. In essence, he wants to build a super-app with similar functionality to the Chinese WeChat, which encompasses everything from social media sharing and paying bills, to video calling and video games.
“Twitter Inc. has been merged into X Corp. and no longer exists. X Corp. is a privately held corporation, incorporated in Nevada, and with its principal place of business in San Francisco, California.”
When you consider Musk’s history as a key person in the establishment and growth of PayPal, this future isn’t as far-fetched as it might first sound. Interestingly, Musk founded a banking startup called X.com in the late ’90s before it was acquired by PayPal, offering some insight as to where the newly established X Corp. could have gotten its name.
Perhaps the new era of Twitter 2.0 inside X Corp. is a second attempt at what Musk originally had planned for his finance company at the turn of the millennium.
