In love, engaged, divorced? High-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has terminated the arrangement with Twitter. What precisely happened?
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| [Elon Musk has failed to takeover Twitter] |
The multibillionaire in the IT industry has decided to back out of the deal to purchase the microblogging service Twitter. The drama surrounding the takeover has been going on for months, and at this point, it ought to be resolved in court. A time-ordered list of events:
The flirt
On April 4, Musk disclosed to the public in a document filed with the stock market that he had purchased 73.5 million shares of Twitter for close to $2.9 billion. This is a stake of 9.2 percent of the total shares, and it makes the person who now holds the title of wealthiest person in the world the biggest shareholder in Twitter. Twitter stock price is soaring.
The CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, made the announcement the next day that the creator of Tesla, a company that manufactures electric cars, would be joining the board of directors of the online platform.
The quarrel
But on April 10, less than a week later, Agrawal made the announcement that Musk had made the decision to step down from his position on the board. The head of Twitter also states, "I believe this to be the finest."
Three days later, Musk unexpectedly launches a hostile takeover effort. According to an IPO document issued on April 13, he intends to purchase all of Twitter's shares at a price of $54.20 per and then delist the web platform. Twitter has made public its intention to fight any attempt to seize control of the company.
The engagement
The significant turning point occurred on April 25 when Twitter and Musk revealed that they had reached an agreement to purchase the web platform for $44 billion. As part of the deal, stockholders would now get $54.20 per share. Musk has said that he intends to "make Twitter better than it has ever been."
However, many observers speculate about the potential courses of action that Twitter may take. Critics are concerned that the controversial multi-billionaire might drastically limit the filtering of material, which could hinder efforts to combat things like the dissemination of false information and messages that incite hatred.
On May 10, Musk made an announcement that sparked a commotion by stating that he intended to overturn the ban that had been placed on former President of the United States Donald Trump from using Twitter. "I would remove the ban," he adds, alluding to the suspension of Trump's user account that occurred on January 6, 2021, following the storm that occurred in the Capitol.
The crisis
On May 13, Musk made the unexpected announcement that he would temporarily suspend the acquisition of Twitter. The transaction will be placed on hold once more information about the methodology used by the network to count spam and fraudulent accounts is gathered. Twitter claims that these accounts make up less than 5 percent of the total, but Musk disputes whether or not this is truly the case.
As of the middle of June, Musk seems to be even more intent in purchasing the platform. During a question and answer session with workers of Twitter, he made the announcement that the company's objective is to increase the number of users to "at least" one billion.
The break
Then, on July 8th, Musk blew the whistle on the transaction. In a letter that was made public by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, his legal representatives accused Twitter of breaching the purchase deal that was finalized in April as well as making representations that were "false and misleading." The issue of spam accounts and phony profiles is still the most contentious aspect of this disagreement.
As a rebuttal, Twitter CEO Bret Taylor makes the announcement that he intends to take Musk to court in an effort to compel him to assume control of Twitter. The business has said that they have every intention of "completing the acquisition at the price and on the parameters agreed with Mr. Musk."
The divorce war
The legal repercussions might take a long time and be quite costly. It is yet unknown whether or not Musk can be coerced into taking control of Twitter. Nevertheless, Twitter need to at the very least make an effort to retrieve from Musk the contractual penalty of up to one billion dollars that is allowed for in the event that the agreement is breached.