Elon Musk chickens out of his $44 billion Twitter takeover

Earlier this year, the world’s richest man Elon Musk, made his desire to buy Twitter public. Since then, no-one has been able to determine the progress of the acquisition. Both parties have been going back and forth on the process, and now Elon Musk wants out.

On July 8, Musk filed with the USA Securities and Exchange Commission to breach any initial agreement of Twitter purchase. This came as a surprise to not only the parties involved but also onlookers. This development seemed odd because both parties seemed to have reached terms on the sell-out of the application after months of squabbling. The question on many minds now is, why does Elon Musk want out? What happens to all the promises of free speech?

Matters arising on Elon Musk’s Twitter deal

Looking back at the entire course of this deal, we can say that it met its predefined end. Starting with the board of directors on Twitter. At first, the board didn’t take the buy-out offer easy, as they fought against it actively. Soon after and out of the blue, they got on the same page with Musk regarding his offer. A price of $44 million was set and all processes began.

Elon Musk on his part then expressed concern about the actual shocking amount of bot accounts on Twitter. This made him apply the brakes on his initial purchase plan. To move on, the billionaire requested the actual number of bot accounts on Twitter. These allegedly falsified records altered the global reach of Twitter. Musk requested to proceed with the purchase plans at a different price, one lower than his first offer.

The Twitter board claimed that Elon’s bot allegations were a bluff. They went on to claim that they had a solution to the bot accounts concern (Twitter now shows you which accounts are automated and which accounts are real). This fix did not seem to please Elon Musk, as he claimed Twitter was trying to “obfuscate and confuse” the entire issue. This began to lay the ground for Elon’s breakout on the initial agreement to purchase Twitter.

Twitter’s reaction to Musk chickening out of his Twitter takeover

From the filing, the billionaire cited “material breach of multiple provisions” and “false and misleading representation” as reasons for him calling it quits. From the looks of it and from our close monitoring of the buyout, this looked like it was always going to happen. First off, Twitter wasn’t open about its yearly user figures as the presence of bot accounts gave them an added boost.

Whatever Musk’s reasons are, Twitter isn’t taking this “slap” easy on him. The company previously said during his threats to call it quits on the buy out that the presence of bots is not enough to drop off the deal.

In a tweet from Bret Taylor, Twitter chairman, he said the company will take legal actions. This presupposes that Twitter vs Elon Musk may see its finale in the courtroom. This might force Elon into buying the company regardless or pay a $1 billion break-up fine to Twitter.