Elon Musk has said the Twitter deal is off, due to material breach of contract…
I think it’s coming down to the issues of bots and real users, but that’s just my guess.
The amount of popcorn needed for this one is gonna be EPIC!!!
Billionaire Elon Musk called off his deal to buy social media company Twitter, according to a filing on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Skadden Arps attorney Mike Ringler said in a letter to Twitter’s chief legal officer that “Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations.” For nearly two months, the company has failed to provide Musk with information about fake or spam accounts, the letter said.
Full article, HERE from USA Today. Full letter details is HERE, to the SEC from the lawyers…
And apparently the Twits are now going to sue Musk to go through with the deal. Huh…
I’m gonna need to buy more popcorn. If they do sue, that opens them up to discovery. Bwahahaha!
They may be just dumb enough to sue…
They’re making noises about it, but I wouldn’t take it for granted till Musk gets served.
Seeing a lot of speculation that Musk got tired of Twitter faffing around and refusing to show him the data and algorithms they use. But as Ivyan notes, discovery could be a disaster.
Also, with the economy staggering so badly, Musk may be cutting his losses.
When an organization gets ruined, the people actively doing the ruining rarely understand that they are giving the organization a short future life.
Sometimes replacements are forced in a bid to rescue the organization, and the replacements start with similar blindspots.
When replacements realize how bad things are, they may want someone outside to blame.
I suspect Musk et al. were acting on inside information about how the previous management was creating trouble for the business.
Other options include a) negotiating ploy b) internal damage has lowered the salvageable value of twitter.
I was never counting on Musk to both complete the purchase and resolve Twitter’s internal issues.
Okay, I am inclined generally to cheer broadly for injuries in many of the ongoing disputes, on principle.
I think trying to fix certain of these tech companies is a moderate/squish position. My view has been that it might be more appropriate to kill many of the executives of several, and ensure that the organizations no longer function.
I’m cross with several political factions, and think that the failure of those factions can only be productive, in the ‘creative destruction’ sense.
kinda sucks when your bluff gets called (theirs, not his).
JMI/Ian- One hopes… chuckling…
Toast/Bob- Good points!
RHT- Doesn’t it though! 🙂
I hope Twitter sues, and gets caught during discovery. Whatever happens, it’s entertaining.
The schadenfreude on this is wonderful.
First they were squealing like a stuck pig over the very possibility that Elon might buy them and rein in their behavior to force them to act more like a neutral platform and less like a partisan propaganda organ.
Now that he’s giving them what they say they wanted they’re squealing because he won’t shore up their rapidly deflating stock options.
Ideally, he should wait for them to bottom out anf make a take it or leave it offer at the then-current stock price. Then set up exit interviews for most of the top execs and all of the “truth” and “civility” censors.
I’d be OK with gallows or guillotines for that last but the law tends to frown on it. Pity.
Troll Level: Galactic Epic!!!
Either way, they’re going to pay him for the privilege of announcing to the world that the whole corrupt enterprise is 90+% spambots, while their stock price drops like Buddy Holly over a cornfield.
Elon Musk just doinked the prom queen, and got her to spring for the room.
Regardless of how it turns out, the ponderously slow wheels of the courts will guarantee years will pass before any resolution takes place. Considering how an honest Twitter would influence the mid-term elections, keeping it as is, full of bots, and a pipeline for misinformation, is the goal for the immediate future.
Investors will reach a quandary. Bail now, and the stocks will drop daily. Hesitation will mean a bigger loss. Wait for a rebound, and the investment may be tied up in bankruptcy.
SL- That it is!
Java- Excellent points!
Aesop- LOL, yep!
Jess- Sadly true. We may all be dead and it STILL be in courts.
Terribly rude of him to call them out.
WSF- LOL, nice reality check though…
I’ve felt for a while that Musk did not intend to buy Twitter.
But he could score a ton of money when they fail to follow through with their obligations.
He must have known they couldn’t.
Yet that doesn’t seem like a Musk operation.
Decent chance that there was some sort of back channel communication going on.
Between Musk, and less public backers is almost a certainty.
More speculative, Musk and other tech entrepreneurs got some back channel communication about malpractice inside Twitter, and concluded a fix was in order, perhaps in case a worse managed outcome harmed /their/ businesses. The other collaborators picked Musk as the point man and public face, given that he has some of the necessary finance, tech, and PR strengths.
Upside of this explanation, is that it predicts more than one potential goal. Downside of this explanation, it makes so many predictions that just about any arbitrary result can be claimed to have been intended.
Not a lawyer and don’t play one on TV, why would Tw*tter be compelled during the lawsuit to open the books when they didn’t have to during the disclosure during the pending sale?
Wouldn’t the people in charge at Tw*tter be on the hook for massive fraud if the sale went through and they never disclosed pertinent facts about the business?
Also, is there insurance that would pay the 1 billion fee?
They ARE required to disclose all, but they didn’t, that’s why he is walking. Much better to have it blow up before paying for the mess and then trying to get restitution after the fact.
He may still end up with it, but at a much cheaper price point if so. I suspect those holding stock are going to consider a pitchfork visit to corporate when all is said and done.
Another interesting look and review:
https://redstate.com/mike_miller/2022/07/09/musks-latest-move-might-be-unbelievably-crippling-to-twitter-regardless-of-how-it-plays-out-n591930