Elon Musk is doing his darnedest to back out of his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter due to a dubious concern over spam and fake accounts, but he may not succeed. At a company town hall meeting on Thursday, Twitter executives “told employees they will not renegotiate the price of his $44 billion takeover agreement,” the Daily Beast reports, “even as Musk tries to stir up doubt about the number of fake accounts on the platform.”
Bottles of champagne were supposedly popped.
At a Twitter all-hands right now, execs told employees that they are not open to renegotiating the purchase price with Elon Musk.
I’m told that champagne was popped in the New York office.
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) May 19, 2022
Twitter’s share price is currently hovering around $38 per share, well below the $54.20 per share Musk committed to last month. The terms of the buyout agreement will make it hard for him to weasel out of the deal. It includes a $1 billion breakup fee, and the company could sue to try to force Musk to follow through on the transaction.
In response to an article earlier this week that suggested Musk could try to renegotiate for a “better Twitter deal,” the new Mike Lindell tweeted, “20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher. My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate. Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%.” He added that “this deal cannot move forward until he does.” I’d say stay tuned to Musk’s Twitter account for more updates, but you might want to stay away from there.
(Via the Daily Beast)