Elon Musk is leaving Twitter in a worse position than when he first declared he would purchase it as he tries to back out. Each scathing tweet and public jeer has damaged the social media company’s reputation, destroyed staff morale, scared away potential sponsors, highlighted its financial problems, and circulated rumors about how it functions. Elon Musk tweeted that the legal action would force Twitter to reveal information on bots and spam accounts in court as word of the deal falling through spread.
Kate Conger and Mike Isaac
THE SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter was a runner-up social networking firm for many years. It was never as big and successful as Facebook or Instagram. It merely struggled on. Elon Musk, a fervent user of the site, then barged in. He said he could run Twitter far better if he were in control and made an offer to buy it for $44 billion. He mocked Twitter’s management, criticized the company’s content guidelines, voiced complaints about the service, and misled the company’s more than 7,000 employees with his statements. Twitter’s shares fell more than 30% after Musk exposed the company’s poor commercial and financial prospects.
Now that billionaire Musk is trying to back out of the huge transaction, Twitter will unavoidably be in worse shape than it was when Musk first stated he would buy it. Musk has damaged employee morale, frightened potential advertisers, emphasized Twitter’s financial difficulties, and circulated false information about how the social media platform functions with every scathing tweet and public jeer.
Founder of Twitter and current member of its board of directors Jason Goldman said, “His engagement with Twitter had a tremendous toll on the firm.” “Employees, advertisers, and the general market cannot have faith in a firm whose path is unknown and which will now go to court to finalize a transaction with a bad-faith actor,” the statement reads.
The hazardous circumstance highlights the reason Twitter plans to sue Musk this week to force the conclusion of the purchase. The court case is probably going to be huge and drawn out, requiring months of expensive litigation and competitive negotiations by top attorneys. The outcome is far from certain; Twitter might prevail, but Musk might leave by paying a breakup fee if it loses. The parties could also agree to renegotiate or settle.