Report: Inside Paul Singer’s Attempt to Take Down Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey

Vanity Fair has published a longform article about the future of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, providing an inside glimpse into attempts from establishment Republican billionaire Paul Singer’s attempt to oust him as CEO.

As Breitbart News’ Lucas Nolan reported in March, Singer’s firm, Elliott Management, bought a sizeable stake in the social media company, and immediately moved to push out Dorsey.

Although Singer is nominally a Republican, he has a history of NeverTrump activity. It was Singer’s money that funded the attempt of opposition research firm Fusion GPS to acquire compromising information about Trump in 2015, when he was still a GOP primary candidate.

That effort led to the creation of the now-infamous Steele dossier, an unsubstantiated document that was crucial in kicking off the “Russiagate” panic.

Vanity Fair reports on how Twitter’s CEO narrowly escaped Singer’s attempt to oust him:

Dorsey, according to one person familiar, had hoped he would be able to use his founder magic to charm the bankers, but it didn’t seem to be working out that way. At times the meeting grew tense, and the charisma Dorsey usually relies on in tense situations did not seem to sway the Elliott team. Whenever Dorsey and his compatriots are asked why he insists on running two companies, their go-to answer is that he is the cofounder, an argument that came up in this meeting as well, according to the person familiar. A year or two ago, that argument possibly would have sufficed. But now, in the face of a string of massively failed multibillion-dollar companies, all led by founders, it’s as if Wall Street has finally figured out that the magic trick doesn’t always end with a rabbit being pulled out of a hat.

In this particular meeting, it appeared that the numbers, most of which were underwhelming at best, overshadowed any conjuring founder tricks the Twitter team hoped Dorsey could pull off. Though there was a saving grace for Dorsey.

On the sidelines of these talks, Egon Durban of Silver Lake, another investment firm, which had been eyeing Twitter, swooped in and wanted to join the party. And after lengthy negotiations, Twitter and Elliott came to an agreement that in the media looked like a truce. The deal includes Silver Lake injecting $1 billion into Twitter, which will help the company fund a $2 billion share repurchase program. [Jesse] Cohn will get one board seat, and Silver Lake’s co-CEO, Egon Durban, will get another. The third board seat will go to someone independent who reflects Twitter’s “diversity” and—unlike most of the current eight board members—someone with technology expertise focusing on artificial intelligence. With two prospective investors, Dorsey did not march to the beat of a single drummer. He can remain CEO of both Twitter and Square—a narrow escape, for now.

Read the full article at Vanity Fair.

A Tucker Carlson segment last year highlighted Singer’s model of “ruthless” capitalism, which accumulates corporate profits by buying American companies, selling off their assets and purging employees.

“[T]he model is ruthless economic efficiency: Buy a distressed company, outsource the jobs, liquidate the valuable assets, fire middle management, and once the smoke has cleared, dump what remains to the highest bidder, often in Asia,” Carlson explained. “It has happened around the country. It has made a small number of people phenomenally rich. One of them is a New York-based hedge fund manager called Paul Singer, who, according to Forbes, has amassed a personal fortune of more than $3 billion.”

Carlson offered automotive parts supplier Delphi as an example.

“During the last financial crisis, a consortium of hedge funds, including Singer’s Elliott Management, purchased Delphi,” he said. “With Singer and the other funds at the helm, the company took billions of dollars in government bailouts. Obama’s auto-czar compared the tactics to extortion. Once they had the bailout money, the funds moved most of Delphi’s jobs overseas, and then either cut retiree pensions entirely or shifted the costs to taxpayers.”

This is the man whose company, according to Vanity Fair, still hopes to replace the CEO of Twitter.