tech

Rattled and uncertain of its future, Twitter stumbles on

20 Comments
By Julie JAMMOT

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Twitter's management should breathe a collective sigh of relief, send their lawyers back to their mansions, and get on with innovating and monetising their service. There are plenty of ways of doing this, but not whilst chasing sacks of Musk's cash in the courts. Musk will enjoy this legal soap opera, but it will trash Twitter.

Why would they do that? It's very possible the sale will be force by the judge, who has a history of doing so.

At the very least, Twitter is entitled to $1b. It would be fiscally irresponsible to their investors to not claim on this.

You seem to be pushing an emotional response to a legal issue. That's usually not a very good way to operate a business.

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Twitter's management should breathe a collective sigh of relief, send their lawyers back to their mansions, and get on with innovating and monetising their service. There are plenty of ways of doing this, but not whilst chasing sacks of Musk's cash in the courts. Musk will enjoy this legal soap opera, but it will trash Twitter.

quote: The social network's lawyers have blamed Musk for withholding consent for two employee retention programs.

That's a joke. Twitter management must have agreed to these restrictions, so they can go look in a mirror if they want to blame someone.

For anyone doing an MBA, the tech sector is unusually rich in textbook examples of how not to run a company, and how to lose lots of money.

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I accept all of Dessert’s points.

My own take would be that he doesn’t have the money, isn’t going to have the money, doesn’t want to buy the company (and they don’t want him), but cannot get out of it.

I agree with Dessert that $1 billion is the LEAST it costs him and if I were Twitter, I would treat Musk the same way I treated my crazy ex-gf way back in the day when she had my 13” color TV: “You know what? I could get it back but it’s worth having less just to have you gone.”

That’s my basic point: Take the billion and be free of him.

Throw in another billion in fees for those pics of his shirtless dad-bod in shades of “translucent white”.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

and Musk takes Twitter private.

That’s not a gamble I would take.

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At the end, though, Musk is most likely going to own Twitter AND have to pay a fine. The stock price dipped to below 33 or so, and is now back up to 38 or so. Somebody thinks the deal will go through.

Whether the deal goes through or not, Twitter is going nowhere. Buying the stock while it is in a dip is just just a prediction that it's not going anywhere. Doesn't necessarily mean it's going with Musk.

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I just read something (https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/heres-brutal-truth-about-elon-musk-twitter-that-nobody-wants-to-admit.html) that explains where Musk screwed up on this whole thing. He let his ego get the best of him, and has turned this into a massive screwup, rather than a potential success.

1) Great deals get started when innovative people get excited about what can happen. 

2) Great get done after detail-oriented people get real about what can go wrong.

Musk is known for the former. He's been the head of some great innovations and ideas. But then he got caught up in the culture wars, and in his eagerness to stick it to the libs and his perceived slights against free speech, did this:

Key detail: These types of "stand-still agreements" often run dozens or even hundreds of pages. But as I reported back in April, the agreement Musk and Twitter signed ran only three paragraphs. Just 241 words.

This is where he failed in point two above. Completely and absolutely. He didn't do the due diligence.

My mouth has talked me into some stupid situations in life, as a result of reacting to ego, instead of keeping focused on the big picture. I'm glad none of those has turned into a mistake worth a billion or more dollars like Musks. Although, if anyone can afford it, it's him.

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Why is this news on here daily?

He's the richest man in the world, using a platform used across the world. Add to this that he's decided he's a participant in the culture wars, something that clearly makes a lot of people rabid, with a financial motivation by a news outlet to put up news people will read so that they get more advertising revenue, and you have your answer.

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If Twitter was a solid company, it wouldn't be impacted by one individual

It is the terms of the contract they signed and the fact that Twitter is litigating it, putting it in a sort of legal limbo, that limits what Twitter may do. There is a $44 billion contract to sell Twitter that is in dispute.

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Since he obviously doesn’t have and isn’t going to get the 44 billion needed to complete the transaction, just take the billion in breakup fees (which he DOES have) and wave goodbye with 1 finger.

The $1 billion contract termination fee is limited to a small number of specific circumstances none of which apply to what Mr. Musk is trying to do. He signed a contract guaranteeing what is called "Specific Performance", meaning he bound himself to meet all the terms of the contract and did so after waiving due diligence. The best Mr. Musk can hope for is to negotiate a settlement with Twitter for some sum of money between $1 billion and the $44 billion sale price.

The one and only way Mr. Musk gets out of the deal without paying a 7 or 8 figure sum of money is to prove Twitter is in "serious material breach" of the contract. In the over 100 year history of the Delaware Chancery Court only one buyer has ever been successful arguing serious material breach. Mr. Musk was given the full data feed from Twitter. His and his analysts inability to understand that data in all likelihood does not meet the threshold of serious material breach. The court will tell Mr. Musk "Twitter gave you all you asked for and it no fault of theirs you can't understand it". The burden of proof is on Mr. Musk to prove to the court's satisfaction that Twitter failed in a big way to meet the terms of their contract. So far, he has offered no evidence to back his claims regarding the number of bots. Evidence matters, especially arguing the seller is in serious material breach of the contract.

I expect the judge to impose a gag order and tell Mr. Musk to say nothing to the press or on social media until there is a resolution either through a settlement or a judgement in a trial. Mr. Musk is prone to bad mouthing people on social media but this judge is not going to tolerate that when it involves a case she is hearing. That might be harder on Mr. Musk than the monetary loss he almost certainly faces :/

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If Twitter was a solid company, it wouldn't be impacted by one individual - perhaps it is really a junk Company.

Faulty logic.

It just was.

He's the richest person on the planet. Not some bruh down the road.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

If Twitter was a solid company, it wouldn't be impacted by one individual - perhaps it is really a junk Company.

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I’m sure Twitter in the UK will be all-in on the governments new “truth score” that some MP has just proposed as a new law. Doesn’t matter if it’s true though, only if it’s what the government dislikes.

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The deal that Musk signed has been described by legal analysts as “hermetically sealed” its so tight.

He’s not getting out of it.

Since he obviously doesn’t have and isn’t going to get the 44 billion needed to complete the transaction, just take the billion in breakup fees (which he DOES have) and wave goodbye with 1 finger.

Life will go on for Twitter.

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Twitter and its employees are getting what they deserve. It is nothing less than a lefty propaganda sight that shadow bans or fully bans anyone center right! It politically discriminates! Lets read the lefty comebacks and their hurt woke feelings in 3 2 1 ...

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Mr. Musk has an intuitive talent to stay popular. Were all those news part of one of his impromptu advertising campaigns ?

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Why is this news on here daily?

0 ( +3 / -3 )

It's a cesspool of the minority of people in society that use it, but it affects us all because nearly all journalists are active users who allow its warped conflicts influence their work that we all depend on and consume.

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Musk once had potential Twitter investors salivating with his talk of growing revenue fivefold and aiming for a billion users by 2028.

And he can't do this by growing its share of online advertising. only by incorporating transactions and aggressive collection of data like some Chinese super apps.

But to say that too explicitly would alienate a certain segment who believe Musk is looking at Twitter in a bid to support "free speech".

Musk's inspiration, Iain Banks, was a real proponent of human freedom and explored it deeply in his works.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

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