Elon Musk Officially Backing Out Of Twitter Deal?
In what amounts to yet another interesting turn of events, Elon Musk may be backing out of the deal to buy Twitter entirely.
This article is more than 2 years old
Ever since Elon Musk first uttered that he was thinking about purchasing Twitter, the news has been full of headlines pertaining to the whole debacle. A debacle that definitively erupted after it was indeed confirmed that the billionaire wanted to claim the social media behemoth as his own. The SEC is even actively investigating whether or not every step Musk took to purchase the social media conglomerate was done lawfully. Additionally, a collective of Twitter shareholders is in the process of suing the billionaire. Now, in what amounts to yet another caveat to come out of this whole mess, The New York Times reported that Musk is threatening to scrap the purchase entirely if Twitter doesn’t provide him specific data he requested.
The data that is causing the whole cur fuddle between Elon Musk and Twitter pertains to how the social media company measures the number of fake accounts on its platform at any given time. Twitter has repeatedly disclosed that only 5% of all accounts on its platform are fake. But Musk refuses to take that figure at face value. The business mogul asserted that he asked Twitter to provide him with how they calculate this information on numerous occasions. However, Twitter has yet to produce the answer that he is looking for.
Elon Musk is using Twitter’s failure to produce the exact information he is looking for as possible grounds to walk away from the purchase agreement entirely. Musk has mobilized his lawyers to submit evidence to the SEC that he believes proves that Twitter is knowingly and purposely preventing the purchase from going through smoothly. The New York Times pointed out that Musk’s lawyers put particular emphasis on the fact that Twitter has, on multiple occasions circumvented its obligations pertaining to the deal. Musk’s lawyers backed their allegations against Twitter by citing the fact that Musk asked them to provide specific details regarding how they determine the percentage of fake accounts that exist on the platform on multiple occasions to no avail.
Interestingly enough, some are speculating that Elon Musk’s latest actions surrounding the Twitter deal are a result of his own personal change of heart. “What he is actually doing is a much more clever attempt to get out of the merger agreement,” offered Ann Lipton, who works as a professor of corporate governance at Tulane Law School, told The New York Times. Lipton reasoned that Musk could be using this data request as a technicality that would give him the option to walk away from purchasing Twitter without consequence.
At this point in time, however, how things will actually play out remains largely undetermined. What is known, though, is that the deal has to be finalized by October 24, 2022. Should that date come to pass without the deal going through, then both Twitter and Elon Musk are free to back out (barring any regulatory processes still awaiting approval). All in all, whether or not Elon Musk ends up acquiring Twitter or not, everything that would have happened leading up to the outcome will have certainly been interesting to witness, to say the least.
