A lot of scrambling seemed to occur the moment Tesla CEO Elon Musk made the offer to buy up Twitter, and it’s very odd, to say the least. Outside of the leftists who began to lose their ever-loving minds over the prospect of Musk opening the door for a free exchange of ideas and open debate, big money dealers began wading into the fight to throw up roadblocks.

As RedState previously reported, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal suddenly popped up and declared that he, a shareholder with a 5.2 percent stake in the company, would vote against Musk’s offer, prompting Musk to ask very publicly how much the Kingdom owns of Twitter both directly and indirectly, and what the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom and free speech are.

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t get a response.

Then, out of the blue, a company stepped in and bought up enough shares to unseat Musk as the top shareholder. According to the New York Post, a private equity giant called Thoma Bravo is working on its own offer for Twitter:

It’s not clear how much Thoma Bravo might bid or when it might make an offer. The firm has an internal team working on the potential transaction, the source familiar with the matter told The Post.

“You are not far off,” a second source close to the situation said when asked by The Post if Thoma Bravo was working on a possible bid for Twitter.

Thoma Bravo could be a white knight for the company and CEO Parag Argawal, one of the sources said.

The sudden appearance of Thoma Bravo is strange but probably not surprising.

What makes it strange is that Twitter isn’t typically something the equity firm, based in San Francisco and Chicago, engages in. Thoma Bravo is an investor in business-to-business companies, not consumer-facing companies. However, Twitter’s board might be desperate to rescue Twitter from Musk’s grasp and Thoma Bravo might be the aforementioned white knight.

“Our private equity investment vehicles employ the same investment philosophy — to partner with and support existing management teams to help deliver solid operating results and drive innovation,” the company’s website reads.

As the New York Post reported, if Musk’s offer is rejected, the stock could take a dive in no small part because Musk sold his enormous shares, but Thoma Bravo could save it:

Twitter, if it rejects Musk’s offer, could see its share price collapse unless it had another option to reveal at the time of a possible rejection. That’s where a so-called white knight would come in.

Because of that, Thoma Bravo needs to move quickly — if it elects to move forward — to show the Twitter board it has a potentially friendlier alternative, sources told The Post.

If the mission statement from Thoma Bravo is true, Twitter’s management wouldn’t have to worry about being kicked to the curb and they can continue doing what they do best, restricting conversation and censoring whatever they don’t like.

Musk, upon obtaining Twitter, would likely clean house and make sure that the company practices free speech, free expression, and the free exchange of ideas. This would likely require replacing people from top to bottom, something those in charge at Twitter would very much like to avoid.

This fight for Twitter is more of a fight for the freedom to express oneself in the de facto town square with Musk attempting to drive out the social dictators who have kept everyone else suppressed. It will be interesting to see how Musk responds in the coming days, and more interestingly, who will win this fight.

Regardless of the outcome, we will know the people who resisted Musk’s attempts to free the public better, and where their hearts really are.