Story Continues Below

Editor's note: You can comment on IBJ stories by signing in to your IBJ account. If you have not registered, please sign up for a free account now. Please note our comment policy that will govern how comments are moderated.

9 thoughts on “Musk threatens to walk away from Twitter deal

  1. …The letter says Musk has repeatedly asked for the information since May 9, about a month after his offer to buy the company, so he could evaluate how many of the company’s 229 million accounts are fake…
    .
    I believe they told him it was [at most] 5%. His response was that they should be doing things to shut the spambots down [and more than insinuated he knew of effective and efficient ways to do it]. Well, Mr. Musk: put your money where your mouth is. If you think you can do better, buy the company and make it happen. That will only cause the value of the company to climb. Of course, if you *do* back out, you still owe Twitter $1B.

    1. He’s now claiming it’s 90% — just trying to get their goat so they come back with a different number. Elon: just pay the $1B you owe and go home…

  2. Wasn’t a large portion of his “campaign” to buy Twitter to get rid of bots?

    Didn’t he realize that a large portion of accounts that interacted with his own Tweets were bots?

    Didn’t he realize that buying a company whose business model is questionable for tens of billions of dollars would be a bad investment considering that he started his own companies for just a billion or two?

    This was always a publicity stunt.

  3. He is going through Due Diligence as an important part of any transaction. His requests are more than valid. Anyone in the comments section and/or reading this article would do no different as a part of a transaction. Attention to Detail is a critical element in the success of any company and in no way would I trust Twitter’s “approximate” 5% estimate…I would want to know for sure!! It is Twitter’s job to know their own numbers and if they don’t, which is evident by them taking a month to satisfy the DD request, my concern is that they are fabricating the data to support the $44B purchase price. Musk has a right to hesitate and demand transparency in this transaction.

    1. You do due diligence BEFORE you sign the agreement letter…

      There is legal precedence that will allow twitter to force the deal at the agreed upon price.

      This is going to be a fun goat rodeo to watch

    2. James M, +1.

      Musk screwed up by (IIRC) signing a deal saying he was waiving the ability to do any more due diligence. The cheapest and best thing to do would be to pay the billion and walk away.

      That he’s still going on like this makes me think his true motivation the entire time has been to blow up the company.

      Needless to say, he’s not doing his public image as a master genius any favors.

  4. In 1 week, Musk, the forward thinking tech guru, told his employees to go back to the office or they are fired, emailed every employee to say 10% of the white collar workers would be fired (because trillion dollar companies with 100k employees make strategic decisions based on “super bad feelings”) then walks it back with a Tweet, and is now manufacturing an issue to get out of a deal because his mouth and ego impulsively wrote a check he can’t cash. Is Musk every going to get called out as the child and a-hole that he is?

Get the best of Indiana business news. ONLY $1/week Subscribe Now

Get the best of Indiana business news. ONLY $1/week Subscribe Now

Get the best of Indiana business news. ONLY $1/week Subscribe Now

Get the best of Indiana business news. ONLY $1/week Subscribe Now

Get the best of Indiana business news.

Limited-time introductory offer for new subscribers

ONLY $1/week

Cancel anytime

Subscribe Now

Already a paid subscriber? Log In

Get the best of Indiana business news.

Limited-time introductory offer for new subscribers

ONLY $1/week

Cancel anytime

Subscribe Now

Already a paid subscriber? Log In

Get the best of Indiana business news.

Limited-time introductory offer for new subscribers

ONLY $1/week

Cancel anytime

Subscribe Now

Already a paid subscriber? Log In

Get the best of Indiana business news.

Limited-time introductory offer for new subscribers

ONLY $1/week

Cancel anytime

Subscribe Now

Already a paid subscriber? Log In