Elon Musk makes bounced Twitter acquisition official

Now it’s official: Elon Musk will not buy Twitter. What will be remembered about the hullabaloo between the tech visionary and the popular short message service is a roller coaster ride with acceptances and rejections. But apparently, at least Twitter seems to emerge from the burst takeover without any harsh losses. After all, Elon Musk is now facing a hefty contractual penalty of one billion US dollars. However, the damage to the image of the native South African, who is always very concerned about his public image, is likely to be much more painful.

Elon Musk makes it official

After information from Spiegel Online said it was already clear over the weekend that Elon Musk would cancel the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now comes an official statement from the 51-year-old. Here, the Tesla boss once again uses the same arguments he used during the entire takeover phase to possibly push down the price for the short message service. In addition to the usual criticism of too little freedom of expression on the portal, it is once again primarily the fake accounts that are a thorn in the side of the tech billionaire.

Of course, this is not the first time Musk has cast doubt on his plan to buy Twitter. More likely, the purchase has already been on the back burner a few times for one and the same reasons. That he is possibly really serious this time, already makes the manner of the announcement clear. Finally he did not set thereby on a Tweet on Twitter. Instead, he wrote a public letter. Musk and his lawyers refer in their letter to the fact that they still have not received reliable information about the number of fake accounts.

Experts are not surprised

Given the ups and downs that the Twitter takeover has taken from the beginning, the outcome hardly surprises even industry experts. After all, for many it was clear from the start that Musk, with his tirades around freedom of expression and fake accounts, wanted one thing above all: Lower the price. For example, highly respected business journalist Kurt Wagner of the Bloomberg news portal wrote the following:

“We’ve seen it move in that direction. Elon Musk seemed to want to lower the cost of the deal. I didn’t expect him to walk away completely, I thought he was trying to renegotiate. Maybe it’s a form of renegotiation? In any case, this issue has been simmering for a while and has probably now reached a boiling point.”Bloomberg’s Kurt Wagner

Twitter stock’s slide as trigger

While Elon Musk philosophizes about freedom of speech and fake accounts, he possibly conceals the actual reason for his retraction. This is probably due in large part to Twitter’s stock market plunge. After all, the purchase price of 44 billion US dollars was negotiated at a time when the short news service was worth 54.20 US dollars per share. Now, about four months later, the value is 36.81 US dollars. It is therefore not surprising that Musk was willing to use any means to push down the purchase price. His key to success was probably the argument with the fake accounts.

Now, of course, the question arises as to how things will continue with Twitter. After all, we can now expect a gigantic mudslinging match. Nevertheless, many experts agree here as well. For Twitter, it is probably better that the deal with the Tesla boss has fallen through. After all, it had already become clear internally that the Twitter staff was not entirely happy about the potential new boss. Industry expert Julie Biel commented on this on the CNBC news channel. She believes that Twitter should be happy that the deal has now fallen through.

Twitter employees didn’t have confidence in Elon’s ability to run such a company when he’s still running two companies at the same time, Tesla and SpaceX, which are large and complex. It’s not so good in the short term, there won’t be another buyer, we know that. And advertising revenue will suffer. I’m a little worried about the stock because of that – but in the long run, it will be good for the company.Julie Biel

It’s going to be expensive for Elon Musk

The first day of trial Elon Musk vs. Twitter may not be long in coming now. After all, the tech visionary may not simply withdraw from a billion-dollar deal without consequence. In the contract, the two parties have negotiated that he must pay a penalty of one billion US dollars in the event of a withdrawal. However, Musk does not want to accept this without further ado. His team of lawyers would also like to highlight Twitter’s insufficient cooperation on the issue of fake accounts and bring it to the fore as a breach of duty.