[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