Elon Musk Pulls Deal to Buy Twitter
Three submitted stories on different aspects of the breakdown of the Musk/Twitter tale.
upstart writes first about the forming storm clouds:
Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is in peril:
Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is in serious jeopardy, three people familiar with the matter say, as Musk's camp concluded that Twitter's figures on spam accounts are not verifiable.
[...] The spam accounts are not the only reason Musk might try to wriggle out of the deal. Twitter's share price has fallen dramatically since his takeover bid in April, leading to the impression that he is overpaying. And Musk also runs two other major companies, Tesla and SpaceX, along with some start-ups.
[...] Musk likely grasps the difficulty of backing out at this stage, prompting him to find legal reasons to justify an exit, according to Carl Tobias, law professor at the University of Richmond.
After raising the bot issue, for example, Musk said Twitter's figures could constitute a "material adverse misstatement," a likely reference to a contractual clause that gives him the ability to back out of the deal in the event of a significant event that fundamentally changes the business.
"I think it's an excuse," Tobias said. "It doesn't seem to me that a court would find that persuasive." Tobias cited Musk's own waiving of due diligence in his hasty acceptance of the deal. "It does seem to me that it undercuts a lot of arguments he could try to make otherwise," he said.
upstart then writes about the storm:
Elon Musk has notified Twitter the $44 billion buyout is off, citing "false and misleading representations"
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