[wonderwonder]

Musk responded to Parag's thread with a poop emoji. Not going to lie if I worked at twitter I would be a little nervous about my career at this point. For several reasons including what appears to be the potential for a very hostile work culture in the near term. Musk is being openly antagonistic towards twitter leadership and denigrating the people that work there. Although it does seem more and more like the deal is not going to close. I don't think Musk wants it anymore and is seizing on anything to get out of it.

[ryzvonusef]

> Musk is being openly antagonistic towards twitter leadership and denigrating the people that work there.

Seeing how badly twitter has been managed, (for a laugh, check out their "R&D" expenditure), how mush of a loss making enterprise it has been, and how it always at risk of a take over, is it that surprising?

If it has been Elliot Management (the previous rumored takeover threat for twitter) a group far less prone to public display than Musk... would things have been any less different? The only difference is that Musk is being open about what he has been doing, which I see a public good, frankly.

Elliot's track record shows it is far more vicious in layoffs of cuts.

----

https://fortune.com/2013/10/25/why-is-twitter-spending-so-mu...

https://www.rndtoday.co.uk/latest-news/is-twitters-rd-provid...

https://www.axios.com/2021/11/30/jack-dorsey-twitter-departu...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevindowd/2022/02/27/wall-stree...

[diob]

I don't think he wanted it in the first place. This is all performative bs for him to make another quick buck / get pr.

[mlindner]

This type of argument needs to die. He has never done anything "to make a quick buck" so the use of "another" here implies facts that are utterly false. Musk has no history of "pumping and dumping" what so ever.

[plausibledeny]

How is Elon going to make a quick buck from a failed deal? If anything he'll have to pay out significantly.

[pavlov]

He got an excuse to sell lots of Tesla stock at a price 40% higher than today. Selling the stock without this charade would have sent a negative message about how little he believes in Tesla’s stock price and sunk the price further.

Even accounting for the breakup fee he comes ahead financially by many billions in cash, while also building his image as the free speech edgelord. Win-win.

[plausibledeny]

He just sold $16 billion worth of Tesla stock in Nov/Dec 2021, why would he need a fake excuse to sell another $8 billion in April 2022?

[ahahahahah]

Your logic is terrible. Your argument would only make sense if he didn't have an excuse for the previous sale, but he did.

[camjw]

I remember reading on here that the breakup fee is only applicable in very narrow cases, basically only if the US govt blocks the deal. If it's not applicable then he's on the hook for the whole ~40billy. Does he still come out ahead financially in that case if, for instance, the Twitter board take him to court? Genuine question.

[pavlov]

Would they really go to court? That could take years and create a cloud of uncertainty around Twitter — certainly not good for shareholder value.

It's much easier for the board if they settle privately with Musk: "Yeah, pay the breakup fee and we'll forget this ever happened."

[sangnoir]

I read someone else's analysis of the agreement: it bizarrely sets the cap for any damages that can be sued in court to $1B - same as the breakup fee. This obviously gives Elon an incentive to not pay breakup fee, but go to court first instead. At worst, he'd pay a billion, and best, whatever the court says thats less than a billion + legal fees

[ProjectArcturis]

Read Matt Levine's Money Stuff column from the past couple days -- it explains realistically what could happen.

[mandeepj]

> He got an excuse to sell lots of Tesla stock at a price 40% higher than today.

Ironically, Twitter deal plus related announcements hammered the stock more than the overall market downturn. Besides that, I believe no one wants this deal to go through including US government. Earlier, The board could not legally decline the deal

[minsc_and_boo]

Musk has a history of making public, bad-faith declarations to pump assets he later sells at profit.

More than one person has pointed out that Musk likely wanted to sell his Twitter stock, and was using the official-looking, low-ball buy offer to pump it. Twitter board smartly called his bluff, and now Musk is trying to weasel his way out of paying anything.

[gzer0]

> Musk has a history of making public, bad-faith declarations to pump assets he later sells at profit.

Could you point me to those instances?

His offer wasn't a lowball offer at all considering the tech stock bloodbath we have seen as of late, and especially so because the offer was made just right before the massive downturn we have witnessed. I think it's quite the contrary; 44 billion is way higher than its worth imo.

> Musk is trying to weasel his way out of paying anything.

He would need to pay a $1 billion break up fee. I don't understand what point you are trying to make here.

[minsc_and_boo]

The Twitter offer came before the stock market drop, making it both a low-ball offer and making the Twitter board smart to call his bluff.

Musk only needs to pay the $1B breakup fee if he can't procure enough financing, among other strings. Musk has definitely has enough financing, he just doesn't want to pay it, so he's trying to weasel out of it by laying the ground work for a settlement to walk away.

Either way, Twitter's board is getting Musk's money, either selling at a now-premium or settling for wanting to break, due to Musk's errors.

[jen20]

> Could you point me to those instances?

Here's one [1].

[1]: https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/08/the-sec-wants-tesla-to-exp...

[labcomputer]

You mean the instance where he did have a verbal agreement with an able buyer? A buyer who admitted to such in private text messages that came to light in court proceedings, and who later bought a different electric car startup?

[blitzar]

> His offer wasn't a lowball offer at all considering the tech stock bloodbath we have seen as of late

The real bloodbath came after he bought it, at the time it was a modest premium.

> He would need to pay a $1 billion break up fee.

He is laying out the case at the moment to walk away and pay no break up fee.

[mlindner]

> Musk has a history of making public, bad-faith declarations to pump assets he later sells at profit.

No he does not. He has no history of that what so ever.

[Ancalagon]

Wasn’t Bitcoin one of these?

[mlindner]

No it wasn't. As he hasn't sold any of the coins he bought. Tesla still has them.

[minsc_and_boo]

(I think their comment was satire)

[stjohnswarts]

The PR is priceless.