This current news cycle just won’t stop, and another curve ball has been thrown. In a head-scratching moment, Twitter is now reportedly rejecting Elon Musk’s proposal to buy the company. That comes after news on Tuesday broke that the two sides had supposedly agreed to renew and follow through on the original $44 billion deal.
Here’s how The Daily Caller described the situation
A tentative agreement reached earlier this week for Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to purchase Twitter has reportedly stalled, with Musk’s lawyers claiming that Twitter has refused to accept the proposal.
The announcement comes just two days after Musk and Twitter announced plans to “close the transaction” at the original $44 billion price set in an April 2022 deal. Twitter eventually sued Musk to force him to comply with the terms of that initial deal, after Musk repeatedly attempted to escape it, but Musk’s lawyers now claim that the Oct. 17 trial be halted, according to a filing by Musk’s lawyers.
“Twitter will not take yes for an answer,” the filing reads. “Astonishingly, they have insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with their stockholders’ interests.”
So what’s really going on here? A lot of people are playing this as if Twitter is not wanting to sell to Musk anymore, and naturally, those on the left who want the deal to fall through are rejoicing. They want the massive social media company, which has become ground zero for political news, to keep censoring the right and influencing elections.
I think that’s a misread of what’s happening, though. It makes no sense for that to be the case given that Twitter is currently suing Musk to force him to go through with the deal. They are also refusing to drop that lawsuit despite the billionaire’s renewed commitment, and that’s the key here.
Musk’s latest proposal reportedly included a condition that Twitter must drop the lawsuit, with the first trial date set just weeks from this writing. Naturally, Twitter does not want to do that because they fear that Musk will simply back out again after they’ve given up their leverage. That seems to be the sticking point.
In other words, I suspect this is more of a bump in the road than the wild twist and turn it’s being presented at. Both sides want to get this done. The rest is just working out the details of how a sale can be guaranteed in the absence of litigation.
UPDATE:
Sure enough, the lawsuit has been stayed so the transaction can be completed. For once, my initial read was correct. See, I’m not totally useless?