Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

People are complicated. Love is not.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Musk Runs From Twitter (Friday News Drop Strikes Again!)

Musk Runs From Twitter (Friday News Drop Strikes Again!)

by | 105 Comments

This post is in: 

On a break due to a lot of things, but let us savor:

Elon Musk said on Friday he was terminating his $44 billion deal for Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), saying that the social media company had failed to provide information about fake accounts on the platform.

Yeah, lots of us knew, yet it’s good when the other shoe gets to droppin’.

And some ol’ skool to celebrate:

Open this thread up wide and say “ahhhhh…”!

Hope folx have the best weekend y’all can, if you can! I’ll continue to be more away than not, for a while longer.

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  1. 1.

    sdhays

    Some lawyers are going to start shopping for new mansions.

    ETA: They might be able to pick up some slightly-used super-yachts super-cheap. Apparently that market is suddenly awash with supply.

  3. 3.

    Jerzy Russian

    I have gotten into the habit of reading the headlines the Google app on my iPhone provides.  Very rarely are these headlines related to actual important (and/or current) news.  In any event, there was an article from People magazine informing me that Musk recently fathered twins.  Apparently he tweeted that he was doing his part to help the underpopulation crisis.  It seems he believes the world does not have enough people.

     

    The caption under his picture could have been “Christ, what an asshole!”

  4. 4.

    MattF

    I think, in fact, that Musk has suffered significant reputational damage. And possibly future financial damage as well. Once upon a time I had some respect for him, but no longer. We shall see.

  5. 5.

    LeftCoastYankee

    Based on how fast the Twitter board said “Yes”, it was obvious Musk was overpaying, and hadn’t planned it well beyond a PR Stunt.

    I hope they soak him… he can afford it.

  6. 6.

    Pharniel

    @sdhays: ​
     

    Yeah, turns out “didn’t give the numbers I liked” is not a valid withdrawl condition, especially after they gave him access to the Firehouse – every Tweet being made in real time.

    Delaware courts – the specified jurisdiction in the contract, have enforced these purchases before, requiring those backing out to liquidate other assets. The Twitter board sees Elon with this high bid in the $50’s as the best possible option for shareholders, and thus must pursue an order to buy Twitter at the price agreed upon.

    But it’s going to be a huge fight.

  8. 8.

    PaulB

    Gee, what a surprise, since the deal never made any financial sense, even before the stock market drop. It will be interesting to see if the courts hold him to the billion dollar penalty for withdrawing his offer.

  10. 10.

    Scout211

    @Jerzy Russian:

    The gossip:  He had secret twins!

    I guess her new job is now not available. LOL

    The latest Elon Musk drama shows he had two more babies with an executive at his company Neuralink, two weeks before the second Grimes baby arrived, and the executive who had his twins could now reportedly be in line to be CEO of Twitter.

  11. 11.

    mrstealyour

    A philanderer and overall douchebag getting slandered a thousand different ways on a platform he’s too broke to buy.

    this is amazing

  12. 12.

    germy shoemangler

    Didn’t Musk have some sort of tussle with Amber Heard?  Something about embryos, if I recall correctly

  14. 14.

    debbie

    The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
    — Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022

  15. 15.

    debbie

    Elon Musk is currently looking for change under his couch cushions to see if he can buy Truth Social instead.
    — Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) July 8, 2022

  16. 16.

    Benw

    There was a slimy billionaire named Elon

    who decided to get a stupid deal on

    he tried to buy Twitter

    but had to reconsider

    Let’s put him in a rocket to Orion

  19. 19.

    Burnspbesq

    @sdhays:

    If Elon is being competently advised by experienced litigators, he’ll be told that it’s worth $1 billion to avoid being deposed. He would be a more self-destructive deponent than Trump.

  21. 21.

    Gin & Tonic

    Glad to see you posting, and I hope your health issue reaches a swift and satisfactory resolution.

  26. 26.

    glc

    @PaulB:

    It will be interesting to see if the courts hold him to the billion dollar penalty for withdrawing his offer.

    If Twitter has  the stomach for it, they can hold to him to more than the billion, though it might take a long time. The contract language doesn’t actually allow him to simply walk away for a flat billion. Twitter can ask the Delaware courts to enforce the agreement.

    But then they will have to keep on dealing with Musk for as long as that takes.  Musk is counting on the fact that he’s a known asshole to dissuade them. Seems like a fair bet. That’s more or less how he got Tesla.

  27. 27.

    Doug R

    @sdhays:

     

    They might be able to pick up some slightly-used super-yachts super-cheap.

    I was looking at the NY Times story via the Seattle Times (no paywall) and it looks like the Bezos yacht had 3 masts planned for what looked like a hybrid sail.
    I’m thinking just don’t install the masts and it should fit under the bridge, just install them elsewhere.

  28. 28.

    Citizen Alan

    @MattF:

    I had respect for Elon Musk back when I knew absolutely nothing about the SOB other than the fact the fact that he was trying to expand the market for electric cars.  Every fact I have learned about him other than that 1 detail has made him more and more repulsive in my eyes.

  34. 34.

    Poe Larity

    Someone should make a site to nominate passengers for Golgafrinchan Martian Ark Fleet Ship B.

  37. 37.

    Cameron

    This is as entertaining as the story about Trump quitting his own social media company and running away from it.

  39. 39.

    AJ formerly of the Mustard Search and Rescue team

    Great to have some Pharcyde on the blog. Hope you are doing ok MisterDancer. We’ll be here with open arms when you get back.

  40. 40.

    Scout211

    @germy shoemangler:

    Damn you for making me take a deep dive into the entertainment/gossip news on google!

    Only the “best” news sites (i.e. gossipy infotainment sites that I never heard of before today) hint that Musk and Heard had an on and off relationship after she divorced Depp.  The baby she now has could be Elon’s! But it would have had to be from IVF!!!

    Spoiler Alert:  NOT CREDIBLE.

    Whew!  I need a shower.  Those sites are just icky.

  43. 43.

    Cmorenc

    Musk could tender bitcoin to pay for twitter – paying for something of dubious value with something of dubious value.

  44. 44.

    Ruckus

    @Doug R:

    That is what they are doing, installing the masts after the boat is towed under the bridge.

    The boat is a sail boat, a huge fucking sail boat, like most it very likely has an engine as well. Mine did, although neither the boat or the engine were the same size as his. I bet his dingy might be bigger than my sailboat was.

  47. 47.

    azlib

    @LeftCoastYankee:

    Based on how fast the Twitter board said “Yes”, it was obvious Musk was overpaying, and hadn’t planned it well beyond a PR Stunt.

    I hope they soak him… he can afford it.

     

    I do not think the Twitter Board is going to walk away from the deal.

  51. 51.

    Barbara

    @Pharniel: ​ My theory, based on some things I read and the way this issue was phrased is that the purchase agreement might contain a clause to the effect that even though he is agreeing to forego diligence (who does that?) he is entitled to rely on Twitter’s SEC documents, and Twitter provides estimates of bot activity in some of its SEC filings. His argument might be that if the filings are materially inaccurate he can walk away. If he has independent information, that might be one thing, but he’s asking for that information from Twitter, so it’s still hard for me to see how that argument would be successful. Most likely outcome is a settlement with a somewhat less valuable break up fee, but still a lot of money. The sums involved outstrip the legal fees. This is not a fight where you are going to settle just to avoid paying lawyers.​

  59. 59.

    MisterDancer

    Hey all! Thanks for the well wishes, yet a quick note: my issues aren’t medical for me, personally. Other people’s medical, yes, but I personally have other stuff going on in my…exciting life (sigh) .

    Apologies for the confusion!

  60. 60.

    Miss Bianca

    Y’know, color me crazy, but I just can’t shake this feeling that Elon Musk just might not be as smart as he seems to think he is.

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I’m glad to see your nym! Hope you are recovering well, and that the medicos can soon find out what was going on with you!

    tripled.

  63. 63.

    KrackenJack

    A number of people pointed out that most of his assets were actually illiquid. The post said today he sold $8B in stock and had commitments for another $7B. That’s only a third of his bid and not even enough to buy Twitter at it’s current price.

    Basing your entire termination argument on bots seems like a poor legal strategy, but I’m sure he knows better than his counsel.

  65. 65.

    Spanky

    Being as it’s Elon Musk, I assume the contract doesn’t have a sanity clause.

  66. 66.

    oatler

    John Crace in The Guardian suggests we call Paul Dacre Lord Fuck of Fuckshire. I wish we had him in the NYT but he’s necesssary to his country.

  68. 68.

    CaseyL

    @The Thin Black Duke: Great to hear from you!  I hope your health is improving!

    The thing about Musk that floors me is how thoroughly he has trashed his own reputation over the last few months.

    I had a vaguely positive attitude towards him, thanks to Tesla (which I knew he hadn’t started, but I credited him with making it a global brand and making e-cars “cool”) and SpaceX (anyone willing to invest in space exploration is good in my book, though I’d much prefer the government was doing so).

    Then: I find out everything I thought I knew was wrong.

    Musk essentially stole Tesla from the original owners and is/was trying to use the same tactics against Twitter.  SpaceX’s corporate culture is a nightmare of misogyny, bigotry and harassment.  And Musk himself is a creep-jerk-asshole supreme.

    Now I hope everything he does tanks.

    Thanks, Elon, for showing your ass so bigly.

  70. 70.

    trollhattan

    Ron’s got a bug up his butt.

    It appears that California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Florida ad buy has struck a nerve. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis devoted several minutes of a Friday press conference to escalating his cross-country rivalry with Newsom, a Democrat and outspoken critic of governance in red states like Florida. Both are considered possible presidential contenders. “I can just tell you this, I was born and raised in this state, and until the last few years I rarely if ever saw a California license plate in the state of Florida.

    You now see a lot of them. I can tell you if you go to California you ain’t seeing very many Florida license plates,” DeSantis said. DeSantis’ remarks come less than a week after Newsom unveiled an ad urging Florida residents and businesses to come to California, “where we still believe in freedom.”

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article263287578.html#storylink=cpy

    Sick burn, DeSantis, on account of you’re here checking out plates in traffic and all. Woo, how’s Gavin going to sleep tonight, after this?

  71. 71.

    Edmund Dantes

    @Gin & Tonic: if the “waive due diligence” thing was really on the agreement not sure how he backs off cause they wouldn’t give him the data he wanted or disliked the data.

    but that’s why a lot of lawyers are going to make a ton of money over the next 5-10 years cause he’s going to drag this out as much as possible.

     

    wonder if the Twitter lawyers can get the court to put the “purchase price” in escrow for the inevitable loss?

  73. 73.

    The Pale Scot

    @Doug R:

    As an appreciator of sailing ships, that is the ugliest piece of crap I’ve ever seen. And some Captain with a Master All Seas license is going to suck it up to take that scow out of harbor for a ludicrous pric

     

    Or as the Klingon said, hauled away as garbage

  75. 75.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Edmund Dantes: He didn’t “waive due diligence” he decided not to perform it. You sign a purchase agreement, the time to perform due diligence is before, not after.

  76. 76.

    Anotherlurker

    @trollhattan: Speaking as someone who got the F out of Fla. after giving it a fair chance (3 wasted years of my life), I went to the Ca. DMV within 2 weeks of moving.  I couldn’t wait to get the shithole’s license plate off my car.

  77. 77.

    SiubhanDuinne

    O/T, but for any Canadian commenters who can see this, is the Rogers outage still ongoing? I’ve been trying intermittently throughout the day to phone my cousin and a friend (both in Ontario) and can’t contact either of them.

  79. 79.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Thanks, folks. I missed the joint. Not 100% but better than I was.

  81. 81.

    FelonyGovt

    @trollhattan: Bullshit. I see plenty of Florida plates around here. In any event, this is a variety of the thinking “how could Biden have won, he didn’t have big rallies”.

  83. 83.

    no comment

    @trollhattan: Aside from Covid concerns, I don’t imagine there are many people driving all the way from FL to CA or vice versa when they could take a flight. But for trolling purposes, I would ask DeSantis if FL wages are even high enough for the average resident to take a cross-country vacation.

  85. 85.

    kalakal

    @no comment: Yeah, I was thinking on the same lines, some trolling like “Californians can afford to vacation in Florida, whereas Floridians…

  91. 91.

    Ken

    So what powers do the Delaware corporate courts have? Dare I hope it’s something like the end of Trading Places (“Seize all assets of Duke Brothers Commodity Brokers, and all personal assets of Randolph and Mortimer Duke”)?

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    @Jay:

    Easily.

    Lots of room to spare.

    It just makes me think that being a billionaire must be hard, having to solve all the problems of having enough money to pay for a boat so big that it can’t pass under a bridge that has been there for over 100 yrs. Is it possible that a billion dollars buys you stupid along with everything else?

  93. 93.

    Ruckus

    @Miss Bianca:

    You take that back! I mean really, that’s no way to talk about a filthy rich, pompous, arrogant ass who can’t keep his dick in his pants for more than 10 minutes at a time and who thinks his shit doesn’t stink.

    Is it?

  94. 94.

    Jay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    still ongoing, no end date. In service transactions go through, ( CIBC card at a CIBC bank), some credit cards dependent on Service Provider to the store, but for example, Fraser Health, all systems were down today, ( our local clinic and hospital provider), because everything is online.

    Luckily, no need for a Hospital and I had cash for the grocery store.

    No end date promised.

  96. 96.

    The Lodger

    @Ken: Delaware courts aren’t that powerful, but I can attest they are masters of delay and inconvenience, especially in matters of inheritance.

  100. 100.

    tokyokie

    @SFBayAreaGal: As I recall, the guy who coordinated the rescue was a white South African living in Thailand, and Musk didn’t begin insulting him until the rescuer rejected the mini-submarine that Musk threw together and sent halfway around the world to “assist” the effort. The rescuer said the thing was both too large and too inflexible to make it through the caves, and declined to use it, at which point Musk used his billionaire’s bullhorn to slander him as a pedo. I’ve despised the bastard ever since that incident.

  103. 103.

    Shalimar

    @trollhattan: I’m not sure what license plates have to do with it.  People who go back and forth between California and Florida fly.  They don’t drive.  And there are a lot of people with residences in both L.A. and Miami, which DeSantis really should be aware of considering how much fund-raising he does.

  104. 104.

    Shalimar

    @Anotherlurker: This is true too.  You have 20 days to get a California license plate when you move into the state.  You have 10 days when you move to Florida.  You won’t see plates for long among peoole who have moved, and very very few tourists drive that far in anything other than an R.V.

  105. 105.

    Kent

    @tokyokie: @SFBayAreaGal: As I recall, the guy who coordinated the rescue was a white South African living in Thailand, and Musk didn’t begin insulting him until the rescuer rejected the mini-submarine that Musk threw together and sent halfway around the world to “assist” the effort. The rescuer said the thing was both too large and too inflexible to make it through the caves, and declined to use it, at which point Musk used his billionaire’s bullhorn to slander him as a pedo. I’ve despised the bastard ever since that incident.

    Yep. I’m actually a certified cave diver and did a lot of shipwreck and caving diving when I was younger and still single. The mini-sub idea was utterly absurd and stupid

    That was the moment that Elon Musk lost my respect and I lost any interest in ever buying a Tesla.  I now have my eye on a Nissan Ariya for when the Prius finally gets retired.

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