Now known as X, Twitter’s messy history—including Elon Musk’s takeover in 2022, its outsized cultural impact, and its significant role in shaping how the world gets its news—is thoroughly and entertainingly revealed in this “absolute triumph of reporting and storytelling” (Ashlee Vance, New York Times bestselling author).
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.
This is the “meticulous and riveting account” (Emily Chang, host of Bloomberg’s The Circuit) 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.
“A riveting account of how ‘hubris and resentment and naïveté’ drove Elon Musk’s tumultuous 2022 takeover of Twitter….This is Barbarians at the Gate for the social media age.”
“Solid business and tech journalism about how a public good became a nuisance in the hands of a reckless billionaire.”
“In Battle for the Bird, Kurt Wagner tells a gripping tale of the high-stakes struggle to control Twitter, one of the world's most influential companies, and the insane, mind-boggling, chaotic battle between Elon Musk, the Twitter board and Jack Dorsey, as the entire concept of free speech hung in the balance.”
“Battle For The Bird is an absolute triumph of reporting and storytelling. Kurt Wagner puts the reader into the room - all the rooms - as one of the great business dramas unfolds and provides an unmatched account of the chaos, power struggles and excitement that have defined the company’s existence.”
