• Battle for the Bird

  • Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, and the $44 Billion Fight for Twitter's Soul
  • By: Kurt Wagner
  • Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
  • Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (21 ratings)

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Battle for the Bird

By: Kurt Wagner
Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
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Publisher's summary

An expertly reported investigation into Twitter’s messy corporate history—including Elon Musk’s takeover in 2022, its outsized cultural impact, and its significant role in shaping how the world gets its news.

Bloomberg journalist Kurt Wagner takes you inside Twitter’s everchanging headquarters, charting its rise from flippant 140-character posts to one of the world’s most consequential tech companies. From Jack Dorsey’s triumphant return as CEO in 2015 to the rise and fall of @RealDonaldTrump to the contentious $44 billion sale to Elon Musk, Battle for the Bird exposes the messy reality and relentless challenges that come with building a global social network. With enthralling minute-by-minute accounts of Musk’s controversial takeover from insider employees, Battle for the Bird exposes the real-world impact of the South African billionaire’s new role as owner, and employees’ growing horror as Dorsey’s idealistic promises (and the “Twitter” name) go up in flames before their eyes.

Battle for the Bird is the definite, objective, and substantive account of the fight over the world’s most influential social media platform. Now, for the first time—through deeply sourced, exclusive interviews—you will discover how the visionary promises of one iconoclast gave way to the darker, yet-to-be-defined motives of another, upending the virtual status quo and impacting the flow of news and information to the masses.

©2024 Kurt Wagner (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

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Comprehensive

Kurt Wagner (a Bloomberg News colleague) is a great reporter. Well written. The audio narration (by another gent) is excellent as well.

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Highly recommend!

Captivating read regardless of your previous knowledge about or interest in the Twitter story. Enticing, informative, and highly enjoyable!

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That Really Happened!?

As someone who used to listen to 50+ books per year, haven’t finished an audiobook this quickly in a long time. I was hooked from the start, and I’m still in shock that Twitter is a real story. Great job by the author, Kurt Wagner, on hitting on all of the key points.

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What really happened

Mind blowing how Musk killed Twitter's staff, $ value and revenues by 50%. So foreseeable by emotionally intelligent people

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typical left-wing BS

not focus on Twitter but instead on politics and hating on Trump, if you're left-winger this book is for you, it's not a business book

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