Elon Musk: Under Federal Investigation Over Twitter Deal
Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City.
Elon Musk is being federally investigated over his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, the social media platform said in a court filing Thursday (October 13).
Per CNN, Twitter did not identify what specific actions by Musk US officials may be investigating. Twitter’s filing simply said authorities are looking into Musk’s “conduct” linked to the deal.
The company’s court filing also accused Musk’s legal team of failing to produce draft communications with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a slide presentation to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as part of the two sides’ ongoing litigation over whether Musk can walk away from the deal.
As we’ve previously reported, the Tesla and Space X founder first attempted to terminate the deal in July, alleging that Twitter violated their mutual purchase agreement by misrepresenting the number of spam/fake bot accounts on its platform. Twitter sued Musk to complete the acquisition, accusing the billionaire of using bots as a pretext to exit a deal that he developed buyer’s remorse over following a market decline. The letter to the SEC at the time stated, “Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations.”
Last week, Musk proposed following through with his deal to buy Twitter at the originally agreed-upon price of $54.20 per share. The judge overseeing the dispute later in the week ruled to pause the legal proceedings until October 28 following a request from Musk. In response to yesterday’s filing, Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro said it was designed to distract from Twitter’s own legal problems: the company’s former head of security Peiter “Mudge” Zatko accused Twitter of long-ignored security vulnerabilities in a whistleblower disclosure.
“Twitter’s executives are under federal investigation,” Spiro said in a statement to CNN. “This misdirection was sent by Twitter to try and uncover which of their assorted misconduct they are under investigation for.”
The FTC told Congress that if it is determined that Twitter executives were responsible for legal violations, they “absolutely” would and “won’t hesitate” to hold those executives personally accountable. In a separate filing on Thursday, Twitter also maintained that it did not instruct Zatko to burn several notebooks as part of a separation agreement, as Musk’s team had claimed in a filing earlier this month. Instead, Twitter claimed, Zatko destroyed the notebooks of his own volition. “Twitter did not ask Zatko to torch his own documents, much less demand that he do so,” Twitter’s filing read. “Twitter had no knowledge of Zatko’s notebooks and no idea what information they contained.”
Elon Musk Wants to Buy Twitter, Twitter Users React
Elon Musk, who is the biggest shareholder in Twitter, is trying to purchase all remaining shares of the publicly traded social media company for a price tag of more than $43 billion in an attempt to own the popular platform.
Musk’s filing with the United State Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today (April 14) features a statement from the billionaire to Twitter’s Chairman of the Board Bret Taylor where he says the following:
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.
However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.
As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”
While the $43 billion price tag is Musk’s “best and final offer,” the Associated Press (AP) noted Musk provided no details on how he would finance the share purchase. The AP also added, “Twitter said it has received Musk’s offer and will decide whether it is in the best interests of shareholders to accept or continue to operate as a publicly traded company…The billionaire has been a vocal critic of Twitter in recent weeks, mostly over his belief that it falls short on free speech principles…Musk, who has described himself as a ‘free speech absolutist,’ also has a history of his own tweets causing legal problems.”
Understandably, a move like this quickly caused Musk to become the number one trend on Twitter with a lot of mixed reactions. Here are some notable reactions, from those against Musk’s takeover to those who support it to those who just wanted to continue to dunk on the billionaire.
Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.
