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To understand Musk's renewed obsession with X and focus on financial services, you REALLY need to understand the X/Confinity merger that became PayPal.
And, particularly, the Peter Thiel-led coup that kicked Musk out as CEO/Chief Strategist.
Here's how that happened. 1/
#history #technology
In early 1999 Zip2, the newspaper online directory service Musk had co-founded, was sold to Compaq for $300m. Elon's share of this was about $20m.
Elon begins hitting up old connections from his time at ScotiaBank.
He says he wants to launch "A Financial Superstore" /2
Having drummed up support, he founds a new company to take this forward. He immediately buys the x.com domain off Pittsburgh PowerComputer for 1.5 MILLION shares of A-Stock in his new company, X.
Advisors express concern over X as a brand. Elon loves it. /3
@garius Side question... who were Pittsburgh PowerComputer, and why/how did they own x.com ?
@Globaltom @garius When domain names went down to $35, a number of us bought the cool ones just for fun. It was a windfall of luck for some.
@avirr @Globaltom I remember selling heat.com for about five grand to a UK magazine.
@garius @Globaltom I sold surprise.com for more than that, enough to replace my roof, in a little auction featuring an Afrikaans guy who threatened to sue me or worse when he lost. What a time to be alive.