Elon Musk Gets Reason To Drop Twitter Purchase?

Elon Musk told Twitter Inc. that a $7 million severance payment to a whistle-blower who raised questions about problems at the company gives him another reason to walk away from his $44 billion purchase of the social media platform.

By:BLOOMBERG
| Updated on: Sep 10 2022, 20:09 IST
Shocking! Elon Musk wants to put cocaine back in iconic Coca Cola
Elon Musk
1/5 The world’s richest man, Elon Musk has shocked the world by tweeting this yesterday, “Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in”. (AP)
image caption
2/5 The tweet was in reference to the beverage’s original recipe. Coca Cola was launched way back in 1886 as a tonic for potential ailments. But the formula was later revised to remove any hint of controversial substances. (HT_PRINT)
Elon Musk
3/5 However, Coca Cola might prove to be too expensive even for the world’s richest man. Coca Cola has a market cap of a remarkable $284 billion. Currently, it is still a mystery about where Elon Musk will find some $22 billion to fund his $44 bn Twitter buy. In fact, Musk buying Twitter has shaved over $100 bn from Tesla valuation- in a day. Bloomberg reported, "Tesla Inc. wiped roughly $126 billion off its valuation Tuesday as the stock fell 12% on investors’ concern that Elon Musk may sell shares to complete his $44 billion takeover of Twitter Inc." (AFP)
Elon Musk
4/5 Elon Musk’s own fortune currently stands at $253 billion, but he is far ahead of his rival Jeff Bezos, whose fortune stands at $162 billion. (REUTERS)
Elon Musk
5/5 But you can never say never for the man who is widely considered a genius behind the world’s biggest EV company Tesla, and who is now carrying out NASA missions with the help of SpaceX. (REUTERS)
Elon Musk
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Musk’s lawyers, in a filing Friday, said as part of the purchase deal, Twitter needed to notify the billionaire before it spent $7.75 million in a separation agreement on June 28 with Peiter Zatko, the company’s former security chief. (AFP)

Elon Musk told Twitter Inc. that a $7 million severance payment to a whistle-blower who raised questions about problems at the company gives him another reason to walk away from his $44 billion purchase of the social media platform.

Musk is trying to terminate his acquisition of Twitter after claiming the platform misled him and investors about the number of spam and bot accounts among its more than 230 million users. Twitter counters that Musk's bot concerns are a pretext to get out of a deal in which the world's richest person allegedly developed buyer's remorse.

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Musk's lawyers, in a filing Friday, said as part of the purchase deal, Twitter needed to notify the billionaire before it spent $7.75 million in a separation agreement on June 28 with Peiter Zatko, the company's former security chief. Musk's lawyers said they learned of Zatko's agreement Sept. 3 when Twitter filed paperwork in court. Zatko is scheduled to testify before a US Senate committee next week on his concerns about lax security, privacy issues and the number of bots on the platform. He has been subpoenaed to testify in the Twitter lawsuit, as well.

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Both sides are gearing up for an October trial of Twitter's lawsuit to force Musk to consummate the deal. Delaware Chancery Judge Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick on Wednesday approved Musk's request to add Zatko's allegations to his counterclaims. But she denied his bid to delay the trial.

Twitter representatives didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

It's the third time Musk has told Twitter officials he's withdrawing his $54.20-per-share bid for the platform because of violations of the buyout agreement covering the transactions.

“This severance payment violated” the requirement that Twitter executives run the company “in the ordinary course of business” while the legal dispute over Musk's efforts to torpedo the deal are hashed out.

The case is Twitter v. Musk, 22-0613, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington).

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First Published Date: 10 Sep, 20:09 IST
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