Elon Musk delays deal with Twitter because of worries about ‘World War 3’

According to the Financial Times on September 9, this reason was mentioned in the text messages exchanged between Mr. Musk and the bankers made public at the trial on September 6.

During the three-hour hearing at the Delaware Chancery Court (USA), Twitter shared an exchange between Mr. Musk and Morgan Stanley banker Michael Grimes. In it, both sought to argue that Mr. Musk’s attempt to pull out of the deal was purely because of bots.

This conversation took place on May 8, a few weeks after Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $ 54.20 per share and two months after Russia launched a “special military operation” in Ukraine. .

In it, the Tesla CEO wrote: ” Let’s slow down a few days. Tomorrow’s speech by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is extremely important .”

” It wouldn’t make sense to buy Twitter if we were entering World War 3 ,” he added.

The above disclosures were made by Twitter as the legal battle between billionaire Musk and Twitter escalated.

Both sides criticized the other’s lack of cooperation, and requested dozens of subpoenas against investors, bankers and others involved in the deal.

Twitter attributed Mr Musk’s attempt to pull out of the deal stemming from protecting his financial interests as the stock market cools, rather than any legitimate concerns about junk accounts.

Musk’s request to correct the lawsuit was also mentioned in the hearing on September 6.

Specifically, this tech billionaire wants to update more on the statements of a former Twitter chief of security Peiter Zatko, who accused the company of misleading regulators and investors about security. their users.

Musk asked to postpone the five-day trial scheduled for October 17 for several weeks, to review his case and conduct further research.

Twitter’s lawyers argued that the allegations from Mr. Zatko did not meet the legal standard to nullify the merger agreement, even if they were true.

Twitter said Mr Zatko’s allegations were being investigated internally and were ” supposedly baseless”.

In contrast, the lawyers for the world’s richest man accused Twitter of blaming the billionaire for their own wrongdoing, arguing that they have a right to seek more information on the matter.

Judge Kathaleen McCormick, who presided over the trial, did not immediately rule on any of the issues.