Elon Musk Responds To Lawsuit With A Meme
You stay classy there, Elon!
This article is more than 2 years old
Elon Musk’s interest in buying Twitter has taken a typically weird and Musk-like turn as the mogul has decided to back out of the deal. Twitter, in response, has threatened to take Musk to court to enforce the buyout. Which has led to Musk taking to the very platform he attempted to buy with a meme. Take a look at the Tweet below:
Elon Musk is being characteristically flippant about possibly having to go head to head with the social media giant in court. Musk’s meme flips the popular meme format of Vince McMahon getting progressively more hysterical, replacing it with his own image instead. The meme both displays how Musk doesn’t seem too worried about the potential suit while also explaining his reason for backing out.
Elon Musk originally offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion. However, Musk demanded that Twitter prove that spam and fake accounts make up less than 5% of their daily active users before he would push the deal through. It seems like Musk doesn’t feel like he’s been given the information he wants, so he reneged on the buyout. If Musk’s meme is anything to go by, he expects that Twitter will likely have to reveal its bot statistics in court, proving his point that bots are more than 5% of its active user base. Bloomberg has reported that Twitter hired M&A powerhouse law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to represent them in the upcoming lawsuit and that they plan on filing early this week.
This legal battle will likely lead to one of several scenarios for Elon Musk and Twitter. They could settle out of court if Musk gets the bot info he wants and Twitter gets their buyout price. It’s also possible that the price could be renegotiated, with Musk loosening his terms on bot statistics and Twitter giving him a lower price in return. The legal battle could also be a lengthy one without either side giving in. It’s possible this could end with Musk being held to the terms of his original agreement or he could have to pay some sort of damages to back out of the deal completely. It’s also possible that Musk could come out with a legal victory, but according to Morningstar senior equity analyst Ali Mogharabi via Variety, Twitter might have the stronger case.
In June, speaking at Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum, Elon Musk mentioned that his bid still required shareholder approval in addition to his request for bot user transparency. He also mentioned that aspects of the debt portion of the deal still needed to “come together.” Presumably, the combination of these factors led to Musk deciding to pull out of the deal. Musk’s original bid would have picked up the social media platform for $54.20/share. As of 3:30 ET, Twitter’s current share price stands at $33.01. Musk had also lineup up financing from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Prince al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, Sequoia Capital, Binance.com, and the VC firm a16z. If Twitter and Musk both decide to go through with the court battle, strap in, because it’ll probably be a long one.
