Inside the world of mad billionaires

Two things about this book and its authors. One, this is the most unputdownable non-fiction that I have read this entire year.

- PROSENJIT DATTA

It can hold its own against the best of fiction thriller page-turners available today.

Two, despite the brilliant reporting, writing and analysis by the authors, I suspect Elon Musk is having the last laugh. He may have massively overpaid for Twitter—now labelled X—on a whim with borrowed money, and then gone about destroying its value through all sorts of erratic behaviour, but he used it potently in the current elections and can take credit, at least partly, for Donald Trump's win. I also suspect he feels that the money spent was worth it for this reason alone.

Now to the review proper. Character Limit is not just a blow-by-blow account of how Mr Musk took over Twitter for a staggering $44 billion, almost all of it borrowed and what happened once he got his hands on the platform. It is also the story of Jack Dorsey, the other protagonist involved in the building of Twitter, the machinations and office politics that saw him being ousted as chief executive officer (CEO) and plotting his way back, and then his inability to run it properly and letting it lose steam until Mr Musk, who loved tweeting first and thinking afterwards, decided to suddenly announce that he was going to mount a bid for it.