It’s been revealed that multiple friends of Elon Musk tried to get to him to pursue his Twitter deal in the beginning.
Key Details
- The battle continues between Elon Musk and Twitter, but friends of Musk have stated that they tried to get him to not buy the company long ago.
- Musk likes to joke around on social media, so when he started making statements about buying Twitter, close acquaintances of his thought it was another one of his jokes.
- His friends quickly learned that he was serious about the proposition and they tried to get him to take a step back from the deal, but he didn’t heed their advice.
Why it’s important
Elon Musk has attempted to back out of his $44-billion deal to buy Twitter due to the platform having too many fake accounts and the company giving misleading data about itself for months.
Some sources close to Musk say that they don’t doubt, or disagree with, his sincerity about removing content restrictions on the platform. They also think he has the ability to improve Twitter’s products, according to Axios.
Although the sources believe Musk had good intentions on buying the company, they tried to talk him out of it to save him the headache that comes along with Twitter and how it could distract him from Tesla and SpaceX which are really important to him.
Other sources didn’t find out about his proposed purchase until he tweeted it on the platform.
“I think I had the reaction of most people, it was like, ‘oh my God, another huge problem. He’s already dealing with a large number,'” said LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
Backing up a bit
The timeline between Elon Musk and Twitter is a lengthy one.
In April, Elon Musk announced that he held a 9.2% stake in Twitter, which made him the social-media company’s largest shareholder. Twitter’s stock price soared 25% after the announcement.
Later that month, the billionaire entrepreneur offered to buy all of Twitter at $54.20 per share—equaling about $44 billion. He said he originally invested in the platform because he believes it is failing in its potential to be the leading platform for free speech around the globe. In fact, he asked his 2 million followers if Twitter adhered to principles of free speech, and 70% said “no.”
Last month, Musk decided to back out of the deal, claiming there were too many fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has since sued Musk in Delaware Court of Chancery to complete the deal and requested the trial to take place in September. Musk, on the other hand, wanted to delay the trial until February 2023, stating that a case of this size takes time to prepare. Twitter was granted its wish of an expedited trial, with Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the presiding judge, setting a five-day trial for October.
Musk then countersued Twitter, stating his reason for the termination was due to Twitter not being upfront about the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Then, Elon Musk and his legal team subpoenaed Twitter’s founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, to get him to release documents that provide accurate information on bots and spam accounts on the social-media platform and now these documents have come out from Zatko and Musk and his lawyers have subpoenaed him as well.
The trial is set for October, unless it can be settled before that date approaches.
