Discussion

• @morganricks1 Morgan Ricks on x

  I continue to think the interesting question in the Twitter/Musk deal isn't whether Musk has any plausible contractual basis for getting out of the deal (of course he doesn't) but what a judge would/will decide to do remedy-wise.

• @katiaporzo Katia Porzecanski on x

  So what *is* the punishment for evading a court order to spend the $33bn and buy twitter? Contempt? Would that come in the form of sanctions or a monopoly-money-like fine for Elon? https://twitter.com/...

• @mims Christopher Mims on x

  “[Elon Musk] thinks he is above the law and he might be right. A showdown between Musk and a judge might undermine Delaware corporate law more than letting him weasel out of the deal would.” Matt Levine, folks: https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @paul__armstrong Paul Armstrong on x

  Imagine the precedent this would set if he got out of the deal. https://twitter.com/...

• @morganricks1 Morgan Ricks on x

  It seems to me most judges would be of two minds — on on hand, you want to throw the book at people who breach egregiously and in bad faith, in part to deter future bad behavior by the breacher and others. On other hand,

• @chandrarsrikant Chandra R. Srikanth on x

  “Elon Musk whimsically thought it might be fun to own Twitter, so he signed a merger agreement without taking it too seriously and then lost interest a week later” feels more true to the situation @matt_levine https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @dancow Dan Nguyen on x

  LMAO 🫠: “Elon Musk — is addicted to Twitter because it is full of real people! It's how he met the mother of some of his children! The pretense that Elon Musk has somehow exposed the secret truth that nobody uses Twitter except himself and some spam bots is just absurd!” https://…

• @karissabe Karissa Bell on x

  This whole paragraph though https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @helenkennedy Helen Kennedy on x

  This is a very entertaining look at the Twitter-Musk imbroglio that gets quite deep into the weeds for us non-finance types, and yet remains entertaining. https://twitter.com/...

• @ibd_ecarson Ed Carson on x

  @matt_levine is obviously torn between 1. A desire to thoroughly dissect Elon's “pretexts” for moving to scrap the Twitter deal. 2. A desire to never discuss it again. Luckily, the former won out. Informative and entertaining. https://twitter.com/...

• @timobrien Tim O'Brien on x

  “Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, and, like many other rich people, he has some unusual and expensive hobbies. One of his hobbies is that he sometimes likes to pretend that he will acquire public companies.” - ⁦@matt_levine⁩ https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @morganricks1 Morgan Ricks on x

  it's very daunting to order specific performance in a situation like this. There's external financing that has to be made to perform. And what if Musk flouts your order. It turns into a showdown over the court's jurisdiction and power — what happens at ground level?

• @mmasnick Mike Masnick on x

  Matt reminds us that this is not the first time that Elon has been all “yo, I'm totally going to take this public company private” and then been all “nope, psych, lol” https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @bruce_arthur Bruce Arthur on x

  The richest man in the world is a big goofy troll and Levine is great at translating the implications to actual things like contracts https://twitter.com/...

• @ppatel Pratik Patel on x

  This Matt Levine piece on Elon is the definitive article that you should read if you're interested in the Elon Twitter drama at all. It's funny, detailed, and—did I mention funny? while managing to be informative. https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @melmitchell1 Melanie Mitchell on x

  Dear fellow Monetizable Daily Active Users (yes, that's you!), This is a very fun and informative article about the Musk / Twitter situation. Recommended! https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @scottlincicome Scott Lincicome on x

  Hilarious, informative, must-read (as usual) @matt_levine on the latest Musk/Twitter nonsense. https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @carlquintanilla Carl Quintanilla on x

  “The fact that Musk is working in such bad faith .. might intimidate a Delaware chancellor: What if the court orders Musk to close the deal and he says no? .. he thinks he is above the law and he might be right.” ⁦@matt_levine⁩ $TWTR https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @btaylor Bret Taylor on x

  The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

• @ev @ev on x

  @btaylor I'm sure there are legal/fiduciary reasons you have to say that, Bret. But if I was still on the board, I'd be asking if we can just let this whole ugly episode blow over. Hopefully that's the plan and this is ceremony.

• @davepell Dave Pell on x

  1/ I boycotted Twitter the day they accepted Elon's offer to purchase the company. Now that I'm back I'd like to provide a brief overview of how Twitter users and investors were betrayed, what makes me think this was all a set up, and why the current CEO and board must go.

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  and here's Elon officially trying to back out of the deal https://www.sec.gov/... https://twitter.com/...

• @anildash @anildash on x

  One of the very weirdest things is the chairman of twitter having to say “we're firmly committed to seeing things through with a lying asshole who did all of this on a lark and who lacks both the desire and the ability to run the company”. https://twitter.com/...

• @beeple @beeple on x

  NO DEAL https://twitter.com/...

• @pt Parker on x

  Agreeing to buy Twitter and then backing out should be a suspendable offense, and you should have to resume the process to get your account unlocked. This stalemate will be resolved in a week.

• @followtheh Tom Hearden on x

  It's killing me that after months large swaths of Twitter think Musk can opt to pay $1 bil and walk. Not the case.

• @jasonmillerindc Jason Miller on x

  Statement From GETTR CEO @JasonMillerInDC on Elon Musk Abandoning Twitter Takeover https://about.gettr.com/...

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  godzilla picks up a giant skyscraper, shakes it around ignoring the screams of the humans inside, takes an inquisitive bite, grimaces, tries to throw it down only to find it is stuck to his hand https://twitter.com/...

• @brianstelter Brian Stelter on x

  “The next time Elon Musk announces that he is going to buy a public company — and he will do it again! — I will know not to believe him. I will definitely know not to write about it.” https://twitter.com/...

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x

  A lot of real damage to Twitter has occurred these past few months. • Musk is right that firing @kayvz & @boo was a material move by Parag given they were key product leaders. • The board admitted there's no strategy to grow the stock. • Employees demoralized & lost faith. https:…

• @rodimusprime Rod on x

  What's funny is Twitter comes off looking the worst for ever trying to deal with Elon Musk. They bent over backwards and violated every moral standard they claimed to have.

• @obrien Chris O'Brien on x

  It's amazing to me that this was the quality of leadership Twitter has had. Small wonder the company has been such a disaster. If Twitter just let Musk walk away, shareholders would bury the company in lawsuits. How does he not know that? https://twitter.com/...

• @mattturck Matt Turck on x

  Elon once again at the forefront, pioneering the Buy Now Pay Never category

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  In April, Musk wanted to buy Twitter (in part, per his words, to purge it of spambots). Twitter's board tried to stop him, even adopting a poison pill. Now Musk wants out because of bots; and Twitter is suing to make sure he buys the company. What a difference 2 months makes.

• @yoda Drew Olanoff on x

  Twitter comms having to work another weekend like https://twitter.com/...

• @karaswisher Kara Swisher on x

  More importantly: Where is the SEC? This will set a precedent for a long time if it works.

• @joshuatopolsky Joshua Topolsky on x

  Fondly thinking of @jack praising the deal in April: “Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”

• @davidgross_man David Grossman on x

  Elon had back out of Twitter to focus on the Telsa robot, which is coming out right after full self driving is announced, which is coming out right after Neuralink's brain implants, which is coming out right after The Boring Company's tunnels solve traffic, which is coming out

• @jasonmillerindc Jason Miller on x

  Welp. Time to pick back up with the Twitter exodus to @GETTRofficial! #GETTR https://twitter.com/...

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  this is kind of interesting: saying that ceo agrawal's actions of pushing out product and revenue heads as well as other layoffs are also in breach of contract (feels reaching but dunno) https://twitter.com/...

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  2/ This would be unprecedented. Civil contempt of court is rare, and no one remembers Chancery ever jailing someone. However, a judge did once refer someone for criminal prosecution. Three decades or so ago.

• @maxkennerly Max Kennerly on x

  Here's the letter from Elon Musk's lawyers in which he terminates the agreement to buy Twitter. It's a bunch of hooey about Twitter misrepresenting the percent of fake/spam accounts. It doesn't include any evidence the true number is higher. https://www.sec.gov/...

• @matt_levine Matt Levine on x

  ahaha his list of random demands included “goldman's working fairness model”

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  3/ It's possible that this could be where the SEC steps in, as it might have a bigger hammer. Not in terms of financial penalties — at least not that would hurt Musk — but perhaps by banning him from being a public co exec/director (Tesla, future SpaceX) or something else.

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  1/ Okay, let's play this out. Twitter sues and wins. Delaware court forces Elon to buy the company. Elon refuses to buy company. Maybe be cries poor.

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  If Elon Musk gives an interview about this in the coming days, I'm formally calling on protesters to play “Yakety Sax” in the background

• @parikpatelcfa @parikpatelcfa on x

  Twitter employees after Elon decided not to buy the company https://twitter.com/...

• @goldman Jason Goldman on x

  Find a tweet that's aged worse. [Retweet of @jack's April 26 tweet: “In principle, I don't believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular soluti…

• @mat Mat Honan on x

  Incredible that Twitter hasn't banned Elon like five minutes ago.

• @youngvulgarian Marie Le Conte on x

  all of us slowly gathering around Elon Musk's house, whispering then saying then shouting “one of us one of uS ONE OF US”, Elon is crying, there's nothing he can do, we're his family now

• @jason_kint Jason Kint on x

  The SEC? The same agency that gave Zuckerberg and close friends an apparent pass when they covered up a massive data scandal describing it to shareholders as a hypothetical in their risks while offloading their stock? Only to settle for $100mm same day as the FTC? Same SEC??? htt…

• @charlesarthur Charles Arthur on x

  The Musk abandonment of the Twitter deal has been increasingly predictable. Here's the opening par of the Washington Post story from Thursday, and what I wrote for Friday's @theoverspill: https://theoverspill.wordpress.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...

• @qhardy Quentin Hardy on x

  Reporters are still covering this like Elon has been serious this whole time. The alternative theory, that he shot from the hip and hit his own foot, still fares poorly for some reason. https://twitter.com/...

• @bdsams Brad Sams on x

  Pay the breakup fee or ban his account - an Elon trolly game https://twitter.com/...

• @antheabutler @antheabutler on x

  If the folks at @Twitter wanted to be really petty they should suspend EM's account till he pays

• @heyjulesfern Jules Glegg on x

  This man spent a billion dollars on a shitpost and it still wasn't funny https://twitter.com/...

• @mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x

  Okay, I've got it: Elon gets out of the deal, but takes on Westbrook's contract. Kyrie to the Lakers. Nets get to buy Twitter.

• @alexrkonrad Alex Konrad on x

  what if the real twitter deal was the babies we made along the way

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  sorry but if you reacted to news of elon buying twitter by scolding critics for being negative nancies and explaining how he was actually a genius who would end up rescuing the company, you have to sit out this take cycle. i don't make the rules

• @mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x

  Any companies looking to dump some bad news on Twitter, these next 10 to 12 months are your chance.

• @tomgara Tom Gara on x

  Elon will make history as the first person ever whose punishment for losing a massive lawsuit is being forced to own Twitter https://twitter.com/...

• @gtconway3d George Conway on x

  Having litigated busted-deal cases there, I suspect this won't go well for Elon. https://twitter.com/...

• @islimfit Adewale Adetona on x

  Elon Musk was never really serious about this deal. Good riddance. https://twitter.com/...

• @johncardillo John Cardillo on x

  Smart. Too many fake accounts. The value just isn't there. https://twitter.com/...

• @donwinslow Don Winslow on x

  cc: Donald Trump https://twitter.com/...

• @richardmarx Richard Marx on x

  What a surprise. Well, at least this ridiculous process revealed once and for all what an unbelievably insecure and damaged person he seems to be. https://twitter.com/...

• @karaswisher Kara Swisher on x

  Now comes the many lawsuits. Do you imagine for a second if the market had not tanked that this would be happening? : Elon Musk said he is seeking to terminate his deal to buy Twitter, citing “material breach of multiple provisions” of the agreement https://www.wsj.com/...

• @pierce David Pierce on x

  That sound you just heard? That was a million lawyers high-fiving about the money they're gonna make from the inevitable torrent of lawsuits https://twitter.com/...

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  Twitter board chair —> https://twitter.com/...

• @seamoosi Eric Van Allen on x

  Hard Drive dunked him so hard he deleted his Twitter deal https://twitter.com/...

• @julie_bush Julie Bush on x

  it's really funny for Elon to accuse twitter of lying when his original offer included no due diligence or conditions at all. this whole thing was a sham to give him an excuse to sell Tesla shares near the top without his cult turning on him. now he blame-shifts onto Twitter exec…

• @levie Aaron Levie on x

  Twitter the corporation seems to be pretty straightforward and low drama at all times.

• @joannastern Joanna Stern on x

  Has anyone gotten comment from the 🤖🤖🤖🤖? https://twitter.com/...

• @triketora Tracy Chou on x

  how does anyone at @twitter get any work done these days https://twitter.com/...

• @cz_binance @cz_binance on x

  This sounds bad on a few different levels. 😂 Oh well, onwards... More funds for crypto investments & acquisitions. https://twitter.com/...

• @aedwardslevy Ariel Edwards-Levy on x

  MUSK FLIPS THE BIRD

• @chad_hurley Chad Hurley on x

  I guess we don't get a happy ending? :( https://twitter.com/...

• @joshuatopolsky Joshua Topolsky on x

  In uncharacteristic move, Elon Musk pulls out

• @anothercohen Alex Cohen on x

  BREAKING: Elon Musk pulls out

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  Them's the breaks.

• @cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x

  @reckless web4 solves this

• @davepell Dave Pell on x

  Elon is out. Of course. So I'm back.

• @reckless Nilay Patel on x

  Lotta fancy lawyers at three different fancy firms looking for their 1L contracts book https://twitter.com/...

• @joshuatopolsky Joshua Topolsky on x

  Elon was like look I can't afford Twitter AND college for two more kids

• @om @om on x

  There was a time when a man's word was everything. Now it is just a tweet.

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  I guess he's not going to extend the light of consciousness.

• @reckless Nilay Patel on x

  Big energy in this filing https://twitter.com/...

• @film_girl Christina Warren on x

  There is such an easy “at least he's trying to pull out of something” joke here. And just like with sex, the pull-out method is not reliable.

• @reckless Nilay Patel on x

  Reminder that terminating a contract requires both parties to agree to terminate, you can't just declare a contract terminated https://www.theverge.com/...

• @mattnavarra Matt Navarra on x

  Elon Musk is about to make a bunch of lawyers very rich https://twitter.com/...

• @loudmouthjulia Julia Alexander on x

  I am once again declaring that I would love to see the texts between Elon and Jack during this whole thing. https://twitter.com/...

• @byjudedoyle @byjudedoyle on x

  Twitter is a cursed goblet, so beautiful every man desires to drink from its depths, so foul each man is poisonèd when it toucheth his lips https://twitter.com/...

• @davekarpf Dave Karpf on x

  How much money can this end up costing Elon *without* him acquiring Twitter? Like, I know $1B is the floor, but what is the ceiling? Give everybody something to root for here. https://twitter.com/...

• @mollyjongfast Molly Jong-Fast on x

  Elon could probably still afford truth social thou https://twitter.com/...

• @jsrailton John Scott-Railton on x

  Musk just told @Twitter that he's terminating the transaction. Surprising only those unfamiliar with his character's typical plot arc. h/t @alexweprin Source:https://www.sec.gov/... https://twitter.com/...

• @zanderkelly30 Christopher D. White on x

  It wasn't until dude first raised a ruckus about spam bots that I knew this deal was NOT going through. Eight years in the car dealership industry. I know tire kicker when I see a tire kicker https://twitter.com/...

• @somebadideas Aaron Stewart-Ahn on x

  Good news except now we all don't have a solid reason to delete this app https://twitter.com/...

• @lookner Steve Lookner on x

  This guy looooooves making big promises and not keeping them https://www.cnbc.com/...

• @taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x

  End of an era https://twitter.com/...

• @cgasparino Charles Gasparino on x

  Good luck with this; maybe it's a negotiation ploy to get a lower price but if he's really out his lawyers have to be telling him it's going to cost a lot more than a $1 billion breakup fee because the spam account line is going to be a heavy lift in court https://www.theverge.co…

• @mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x

  I am terminating the deal. Pray I do not terminate it any further. https://twitter.com/...

• @antheabutler @antheabutler on x

  Boy bye https://twitter.com/...

• @lucidfoxx @lucidfoxx on x

  Wow, what a crazy event that no one saw coming https://twitter.com/...

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  This letter is packed with things to make you eyes roll. Among other things Elon is claiming that Twitter is refusing to share its monthly daily actives, a stat that ... it files quarterly with the SEC https://twitter.com/...

• @ericjackson Eric Jackson on x

  Big win for the bots 🤖

• @daveleeft Dave Lee on x

  Prediction: another buyer has been waiting in the wings to get Twitter at a bargain-basement price. Remember when Salesforce was interested?

• @tomgara Tom Gara on x

  Twitter should delete Elon's account, just for fun.

• @joshuatopolsky Joshua Topolsky on x

  Master businessman does it again https://t.co/OO5XVAuR00

• @tomwarren Tom Warren on x

  BREAKING: Elon Musk is officially trying to bail on buying Twitter. Musk has filed to try and terminate the deal. Details coming here: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @villi @villi on x

  Twitter will win, but not without destroying itself and in the end Elon will pay for the ashes. The board should have never signed this deal with him. Now, unless he offers a credible compromise, you have to take this to the end and take his money. https://twitter.com/...

• @rmfifthcircuit Raffi Melkonian on x

  OK, Twitter/Musk/Chancery court funtime initial impressions. Musk's termination letter primarily relies on Section 6.4 of the Merger Agreement. That's below. But that provision has holes the size of a montreal bagel. Look at the part right after the page break. 1/ https://twitter…

• @popehat @popehat on x

  I have lived, law student and lawyer, with the law for 31 godddamned years without finding out what chancery means and I'm not going to study it now even for you pack of entitled motherfuckers https://twitter.com/...

• @matt_levine Matt Levine on x

  the reason that elon musk can't get out of the deal over the bots thing is not that he “waived due diligence.” it's that he SIGNED A BINDING AGREEMENT TO BUY TWITTER, and that agreement does not have any outs for “i think there are too many bots.”

• @paulg Paul Graham on x

  @btaylor Do you really want to be owned by someone who doesn't want to own you though?

• @jsnover Jeffrey Snover on x

  I hadn't thought of that! https://twitter.com/...

• @davidmackau David Mack on x

  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter says it will sue Elon Musk to complete the $44B merger he just rejected and is “confident” it will prevail.

• @originalspin Jeff Yang on x

  Ah the one-sided breakup, Elon Musk's traditional relationship exit strategy https://twitter.com/...

• @peachierad @peachierad on x

  thank god bc he would've deadass turned this place into Reddit 😭 https://twitter.com/...

• @wolfejosh Josh Wolfe on x

  entire thing was clever ruse to SELL + LIQUIDATE $8.5 BILLION of TESLA STOCK (w/plausible excuse for doing it) 80% odds Elon pays $1B breakup fee + walks away with $7.5B liquidated 20% spends $100M fighting litigation honestly think he can “land rockets” but can't fix ‘bots’? htt…

• @alexeheath Alex Heath on x

  Me when you say see you in the Delaware Court of Chancery https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @albernstein Al Bernstein on x

  Gee, who saw this coming? LOL I think we all did https://twitter.com/...

• @om @om on x

  The board has 16 billion reasons the deal goes through. Elon has 16 billion reasons to not do the deal. FYI; Twitter closing market cap today was a shade north of $28billion. https://twitter.com/...

• @davewiner Dave Winer on x

  @Techmeme Twitter tanking would be far worse than Google pulling the plug on Google Reader in 2013. The whole world is in a way built around Twitter, and it works pretty well.

• @kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x

  I really do think this is the worst possible scenario for Twitter. Either: A) Twitter forces Elon to buy a company he doesn't want with employees who seem to mostly feel the same B) Elon walks and Twitter, fresh off cost cuts and layoffs, watches stock fall wayyy below $54.20

• @tomgara Tom Gara on x

  I imagine the Delaware Court of Chancery as a kind of medieval faire, all the staffers dressed as buxom wenches and burly woodcutter peasants, there's a dude playing lute, plaintiffs seeking satisfaction must joust, etc

• @reckless Nilay Patel on x

  The two can be: - both parties to a contract - one party to a contract alleging breach and a judge who agrees in either case the lawyers get paid, of course

• @rmac18 Ryan Mac on x

  me, reading “Delaware Court of Chancery” https://twitter.com/...

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x

  You break it, you buy it. https://twitter.com/...

• @profgalloway Scott Galloway on x

  “I've terminated the deal.” Twitter shareholders and Delaware Chancery Court,,,not so much.

• @kevinmarks Kevin Marks on x

  @Techmeme I'm enjoying the irony of the founder of Friendfeed being the one to force Musk to buy Twitter

• @liz_franczak Liz Franczak on x

  forcing elon to buy twitter against his will is what everyone involved, including us, deserves

• @tsuvik Vikas SN on x

  Twitter is ready for a legal battle to force Elon Musk to buy the firm. To accept less than the price it originally negotiated with Musk could expose Twitter to shareholder lawsuits. So while litigation could be costly, losing the deal may be even worse https://www.nytimes.com/..…

• @laurenshirsch Lauren Hirsch on x

  No one really knows what to make of yesterday's story. But if Musk does sue to get out of the deal, Twitter is ready to go to court. It could be costly and potentially timely - but the most valuable part of Twitter right now is its deal with Musk. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @jayrosen_nyu Jay Rosen on x

  There are certain situations where the likelihood of manipulation is so great that you're better off ignoring the reporting until something definitive happens. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @hblodget Henry Blodget on x

  Elon's 10-year Tesla options were about to expire, so he had to sell them. The Twitter bid did allow him to do that without his facing questions about why he was selling. And he sold at an excellent price! https://twitter.com/...