Elon Musk and the Twitter buyout: the plot thickens
Elon Musk’s takeover attempt on Twitter is turning into a slow motion train wreck.
While many criticized the Tesla boss for making an initial offer, publishing the announcement of talks with the company and then backing out of his intention to buy it, now the statements of Twitter’s former chief security officer, Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko, have changed the picture, and could enable Musk to get out of the deal with very little trouble.
Twitter executives had already gone through various phases: from initially resisting the purchase and even threatening a poison pill to nix it, then the company’s founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, backed it, and then less than two weeks later, the offer was accepted. But when Musk began reviewing the documentation provided by the company, he abandoned his original ambitious plans and backed out, only to find Twitter executives taking legal action to force the buyout.
The trial, due in October, which Musk has tried unsuccessfully to delay, looked very bad for him: if, having made an offer and signed an acquisition commitment, you suddenly back out, you either have to provide evidence that the company was not what it was being sold as, or you have to pay very substantial compensation, which in this case was estimated at $1 billion. Until now, the widespread impression was of a…
