When Twitter and Elon Musk initially announced the $44 billion acquisition agreement, Jack Dorsey sent Musk a private message within minutes. “Thank you,” he wrote, with a heart emoji.

Romancing the Twitter Bro

The untold story of the lengths to which Twitter founder Jack Dorsey went to sway his company’s acquisition in Elon Musk’s favor

By Kurt Wagner

Photo Illustration by Chop Choppish Shop

In January 2020, shortly before the world shut down, Jack Dorsey invited a special guest to speak at Twitter’s companywide offsite in Houston: his favorite tweeter, Elon Musk.

The short FaceTime conversation, which was projected onto a giant video screen as thousands of employees looked on, was oddly foreshadowing. Dorsey jokingly asked Musk if he wanted to run Twitter, and Musk complained that he encountered too many bots on the service. Dorsey ended the discussion with effusive praise.