Elon Musk Seems Pretty Desperate To Get Out of His Twitter Deal

It’s been three weeks since Elon Musk announced his plans to purchase Twitter were “on hold.” At the time, he said the issue was with bots and other types of fake accounts. Twitter says that bots and the like constitute about 5% of accounts on the platform. Musk thinks that number is higher—at least 20% and possibly as high as 90%, he’s said without providing any evidence for those numbers.

Musk decided to make eliminating bots and spam his #1 priority in the Twitter takeover. Or, likely more accurately, he decided to try to convince everyone that was his priority, so that he could use it as an excuse to back out of a deal he was pretty clearly regretting making. No one really believes this is about bots but Musk is doubling down nonetheless.

Musk sent a letter Monday to Twitter’s head of legal, policy, and trust, Vijaya Gadde, demanding, as he has previously, that the company provide him with data regarding their methodology for determining accounts’ authenticity. He claims they’re refusing and that they’re “actively resisting and thwarting his information rights.” Therefore, the letter reads, “Mr. Musk reserves all rights resulting therefrom, including his right not to consummate the transaction and his right to terminate the merger agreement.” (Twitter, by the way, says it is and has been cooperating with Musk.)

You would think that if the bots issue was this important to Musk, he would have looked into it on the most basic level before forcing a hostile takeover of the company. Moreover, according to CNN, “a recent securities filing from Twitter revealed that Musk waived due diligence before making his offer to buy Twitter.”

Musk is known for “winging” his business dealings, and making wildly ambitious claims only to then back out of them is kind of his whole deal. He has lots of reasons to want out of this $44 billion deal. He had to secure a $6.25 billion loan against Tesla stock, which has been plummeting, putting him on the hook for that amount if it falls below a certain threshold. Twitter’s stock has also been sinking and is currently sitting well below where it was when Musk made his offer. But if Musk backs out of the deal, he’ll have to pay Twitter a $1 billion penalty.

So maybe Musk really is concerned with bots and spam. Or maybe he’s just looking for a way out or a way to drastically renegotiate his deal. Or maybe it’s both and nothing matters because while he and his rabid supporters will insist he’s playing three-dimensional chess, it’s clear he’s not acting on anything but his own terrible, narcissistic impulses.

(via NYT, image: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)