Saying that things between Elon Musk and Twitter have gotten ‘Messy’ is a huge understatement. After starting with so much promise, Elon Musk’s revolutionary pledge to buy out Twitter for $44 billion to save the platform and free speech, more broadly. Needless to say, negotiation degraded faster than an avalanche, with Musk eventually accusing Twitter executives of withholding information, lying to the public, misleading investors, and more.

What’s The Deal?

The case is now on its way to court, with Twitter looking to hold Elon to his original offer, while Musk tries to wriggle out of the deal, claiming that the platform is gravely riddled with bots and that it’s not worth what he originally thought. Musk has also roped in former Twitter staff to make his case, along with its former security chief. Musk also continues to disparage Twitter management almost on the daily, via, you guessed it – Twitter. Pretty ironic, isn’t it?

If you’re looking to wrap your head around this full brawl between Twitter and Tesla ahead of next month’s scheduled court hearing, this overview by Datavisuals.xyz provides a good perspective on the situation and how it has evolved, and primarily devolved, over time. So, whatever comes next, the potential outcomes for Twitter don’t seem too great. Want the full visuals? Then check it out here. Meanwhile, below are some highlights.

  • Musk began buying Twitter shares starting January 31. By April, he was the biggest shareholder of the company, owning around 9.2% of Twitter’s total stock.

  • Musk purchased Twitter on April 14 and began racking up investments as early as April 20. He laid down the final offer to Twitter Board Chairman Bret Taylor on April 23.

  • Mark brands the deal on hold on May 13.

  • Musk first threatened to exit the deal on June 6 due to the supposed spam account issue.

  • Musk announced his intent to terminate the deal on July 8, after much back and forth with Twitter’s teams and even former Twitter Security Chief Peiter Zatko.

  • Twitter filed a counter lawsuit just four days later. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Wrap

Given the benefit of doubt, let’s say that Twitter did misrepresent its bit and spam account reporting – would that really be enough to warrant a full exit on Musk’s end, who waived due diligence to speed up acquisition in the first place? It’s been one horrendous fiasco, with Twitter possibly ending in worse shape than when it started due to the damage brought about by this supposed ‘buyout’. While Twitter was never the powerhouse platform that Facebook and YouTube managed to be, Musk is the one who’s clearly more in the wrong here for not wanting to proceed with a deal he ‘committed’ to. No matter the end outcome, Twitter will have a hard time recovering from this, if at all.

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Sources 

https://bit.ly/3R7Xfue