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by meheleventyone 1322 days ago
> Musk is not an idiot. He must know exactly what he needs to do.

How does this square with the attempts to get out of the deal? I think your points would make a lot more sense if he hadn’t signalled extremely clearly that he thought the deal was terrible.
1 comments
tomhoward 1321 days ago
There’s no evidence he wanted to walk away altogether - he just wanted to get the fairest price, and surely his investors/financiers would have been demanding he negotiate the best price he legally could.
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meheleventyone 1321 days ago
I’m honestly flummoxed that you think there is no evidence and that you think this was his plan all along. We’ve all been very aware of what’s been happening since he made the deal in the first place. The ability to negotiate stopped then.

You don’t need to make excuses for him or pretend he is infallible!

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tomhoward 1321 days ago
The emotionally charged words and false/baseless assertions of my position and motivations in your comment indicate a strong attachment to a position.

I didn't say and don't think "this was his plan all along". I've done nothing to make excuses for him and I don't pretend he is infallible (indeed I once wrote an op-ed in a national daily newspaper examining his flaws [1][2]).

Occam’s razor requires us to believe what all the evidence indicates and nothing more: He was originally willing to buy it at the price offered in the prevailing market conditions in April, then the market crashed and suddenly the price he offered was too high, so he tried to negotiate/force a lower price (and we must assume his investors/financiers were demanding this as any professional investor/financier would), and when this failed he just went ahead with the purchase, which he always said he was committed to.

The only thing there is evidence for is that he wanted to reduce the price, just as anyone would after such a market decline. To believe anything else requires mind-reading, which you seem to be trying to do not only of Musk but also of me.

So, please, stop trying to read people's minds and just look at the evidence before us!

[1] https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/the-bes...

[2] https://medium.com/moonshot-labs-blog/ego-what-startup-found...

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