How Elon’s weird Twitter takeover saga might have simply been a canopy for him to promote .5 billion in Tesla inventory – bestinau
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How Elon’s weird Twitter takeover saga might have simply been a canopy for him to promote $8.5 billion in Tesla inventory – bestinau

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Elon Musk on Friday introduced he was backing out of his $44 billion Twitter acquisition bid, blaming the social media platform’s alleged lack of transparency relating to bots on the location.

As either side put together for a prolonged court docket battle, some Twitter influencers are floating an alternate principle for the change of coronary heart: The bots have been by no means the issue, merely a automobile by which to covertly promote Tesla choices that have been about to run out.

“Total factor was a intelligent ruse to SELL + LIQUIDATE $8.5 BILLION of TESLA STOCK (w/believable excuse for doing it),” Josh Wolfe, co-founder of Lux Capital, tweeted Friday after the announcement. The tweet included math that prompt Musk would stroll away with greater than $7 billion in liquidated inventory—even after paying the $1 billion breakup price.

“Actually assume he can ‘land rockets’ however can’t repair ‘bots’?” Wolfe requested rhetorically.

Henry Blodget, founder and CEO of Insider, retweeted Wolfe, including that Musk’s 10-year Tesla choices have been about to run out, “so he needed to promote them.”

“The Twitter bid did enable him to try this with out his going through questions on why he was promoting. And he bought at a superb value!” Blodget stated through tweet.

In a letter addressed to Twitter’s prime lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, Musk’s authorized crew accused Twitter of constructing “false and deceptive representations upon which Mr. Musk reduction when getting into into the Merger Settlement.”

Musk had put the acquisition deal “quickly on maintain” in Might so his crew might examine the variety of spam or bot accounts on the social media platform. Twitter estimated that bots accounted for five% or much less of customers and supplied Musk with inside metrics. However Musk insisted his crew hadn’t been supplied with sufficient data to independently analyze the information.

In a Friday tweet Twitter chairman Bret Taylor stated the corporate is “dedicated to closing the transaction on the value and phrases agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue authorized motion to implement the merger settlement.”

“We’re assured we are going to prevail within the Delaware Court docket of Chancery,” Taylor wrote.

Fortune’s Tristan Bove contributed to this text.

This story was initially featured on Fortune.com