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Elon Musk on Friday introduced he was backing out of his $44 billion Twitter acquisition bid, blaming the social media platform’s alleged lack of transparency relating to bots on the location.
As each side put together for a prolonged court docket battle, some Twitter influencers are floating an alternate idea for the change of coronary heart: The bots had been by no means the issue, merely a car by means of which to covertly promote Tesla choices that had been about to run out.
“Whole factor was a intelligent ruse to SELL + LIQUIDATE $8.5 BILLION of TESLA STOCK (w/believable excuse for doing it),” Josh Wolfe, co-founder of Lux Capital, tweeted Friday after the announcement. The tweet included math that urged Musk would stroll away with greater than $7 billion in liquidated inventory—even after paying the $1 billion breakup charge.
“Truthfully assume he can ‘land rockets’ however cannot repair ‘bots’?” Wolfe requested rhetorically.
https://twitter.com/wolfejosh/standing/1545387947578597376
Henry Blodget, founder and CEO of Insider, retweeted Wolfe, including that Musk’s 10-year Tesla choices had been about to run out, “so he needed to promote them.”
“The Twitter bid did permit him to try this with out his dealing with questions on why he was promoting. And he offered at a superb value!” Blodget mentioned by way of tweet.
https://twitter.com/hblodget/standing/1545404123608121348
In a letter addressed to Twitter’s high lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, Musk’s authorized workforce accused Twitter of constructing “false and deceptive representations upon which Mr. Musk reduction when coming into into the Merger Settlement.”
Musk had put the acquisition deal “briefly on maintain” in Could so his workforce might examine the variety of spam or bot accounts on the social media platform. Twitter estimated that bots accounted for five% or much less of customers and offered Musk with inside metrics. However Musk insisted his workforce hadn’t been supplied with sufficient info to independently analyze the info.
In a Friday tweet Twitter chairman Bret Taylor mentioned the corporate is “dedicated to closing the transaction on the worth and phrases agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue authorized motion to implement the merger settlement.”
https://twitter.com/btaylor/standing/1545526087089696768
“We’re assured we’ll prevail within the Delaware Court docket of Chancery,” Taylor wrote.
Fortune’s Tristan Bove contributed to this text.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
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