So "X" - nothing to see here. Elon's in control - Part XXX **Threadbans in OP**

He can probably still afford it, but it would have a big impact on stock and shares of his other companies, could possibly trigger loans and agreements regarding those companies, and I think I read that the downward spiral of Bitcoin, Binance etc could also have impacted Elon's financing a bit.

Tesla, by his own admission is losing billions, due to supply chain and other issues and the share price is way down on the last year. It's definitely not the same collateral as it was.

He is under a contractual obligation to complete the deal, because that's what the deal was. You're arguing that he hasn't received the shares therefore he doesn't owe any money. That's a ridiculously simplistic argument. We're talking about billions of dollars. The shares aren't just handed over and then you transfer the money.

It wasn't just a handshake deal.

Agreed. Things like Twitter are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them. Musk didn't just make an offer out of nowhere. He increasingly bought more and more shares in the company to give himself better leverage, then made several offers to buy the whole company outright. He very publicly stated that his last offer was his best and final offer, and the rest of the shareholders agreed to sell. A contract was then agreed and signed by both parties.

Musk is now trying to get out of that contract. If he had concerns about bots etc, he should have raised that during negotiations for the deal, however he neglected to do that due diligence. He agreed to and signed the contract, so he has agreed to buy Twitter as it is for the agreed price.

I believe the 1bn termination fee is no longer really relevant as that seems to have been related to if there was a significant reason why Musk could not fulfill the deal (eg. Provable issue regarding funding the deal). However by publicly making I about the level of bots on the site, unless he can prove Twitter was knowingly and purposefully lying in all their previous submissions (whereas it seems their reporting tends to be based on regular, random, small samples), changing his mind due to the level of bots is not a reason for Musk to terminate the deal under the contract.

He agreed to and signed a contract without doing due diligence and without including adequate provisions to allow him to back out of the deal. Rather, Twitter made sure to include provisions to make sure Musk completes the deal. He seems pretty screwed.

All because he wanted to be Johnny Bigballs and flash his cash about trying to buy Twitter for ego/publicity.

a smart person would have asked for the bot info before agreeing to spend 44Bn.

He alleges he did and Twitter refused to furnish him with it.

I own one of his cars and I'm quite fond of it, can't stand the man himself though.

So his justification for signing the Twitter deal, buying billions worth of shares, leveraging parts of his existing companies to fund it, and likely having to pay billions in damages if it goes to court is... Twitter might have to release more info on the number of bot accounts?

I'd actually have more respect for him if he just said "I did it for sh*ts and giggles".

This will drag on for years in court. He can probably buy shares below the offer price in batches and technical close the deal. Not a good luck for anything else he wants to buy. You can’t claim a grandiose gesture as a proponent of free speech and turn about and say ‘lolz, to the moon’.

From what I understand the 1bn break fee might not be applicable because Musk can complete the deal, he's just choosing not to. So he could be liable for the difference between current share value and what he was going to pay (which amounts to approx 16bn), or strike a deal with Twitter for less than that in arbitration (likely at least 5bn).

All to prove Twitter has bot accounts. Something everyone already knew, and the majority didn't care about.