Speaker 1: Elon Musk has to hand over information about potential investors
Speaker 1: in the forty four billion dollar buyout of Twitter that
Speaker 1: he's now trying to cancel. Joining us to talk about
Speaker 1: this more. Jeff Feeley, Bloomberg Legal reporter, So, Jeff, this
Speaker 1: is the latest twist in this long running saga. Now,
Speaker 1: what is the significance of this and who are these
Speaker 1: potential investors we're talking about, Paul. These guys are folks
Speaker 1: that are friends or colleagues of Mr Musk who have
Speaker 1: discussed potentially throwing in with him in there set more
Speaker 1: than seven billion dollar equity race he did for the
Speaker 1: Twitter deal. Uh, these folks names. He's resisted turning over
Speaker 1: these names, saying that they don't have any real substitutive
Speaker 1: knowledge of the deal. But the judge says he's got
Speaker 1: to hand him over anyway. That's one interesting angle. And
Speaker 1: then this whistleblower complaint from a former executive, Peter z
Speaker 1: Co is interesting too about deficient deficiencies. And we saw
Speaker 1: a big drop in the in the share price down
Speaker 1: seven point three percent in Twitter today. That's a long
Speaker 1: way from the fifty four dollars that Elon Musk originally
Speaker 1: was was offering to pay. Does this make it more
Speaker 1: likely that Musk gets a gets more favorable treatment from
Speaker 1: the judge. Well, it's too early to tell. We really
Speaker 1: don't know at this point whether this gentleman has the
Speaker 1: goods or it's just a case of sour grapes. He
Speaker 1: was fired by Twitter over performance issues. Uh, we really
Speaker 1: just it's going to take time to flesh this out.
Speaker 1: So I think everybody needs to stay tuned. One of
Speaker 1: the people that is getting sucked into this voltics as well,
Speaker 1: Jack Dorsey, has been subpoenaed. Of course, he's a friend
Speaker 1: of Elon Musk. He's a form of Twitter CEO as well.
Speaker 1: That might there be some split loyalties here for Jack Dorsey.
Speaker 1: What's he likely to say? I don't think there is.
Speaker 1: I think Jack Dorsey is one of the folks in
Speaker 1: this case who would likely be subpoenaed by both sides
Speaker 1: to testify. He is basically one of the folks who
Speaker 1: uh served as an advisor for Mr Musk when he
Speaker 1: was considering whether to make the bid for Twitter. It's
Speaker 1: pretty clear that Mr Musk would have preferred Mr Dorsey
Speaker 1: stay on the board and served sort of as his
Speaker 1: his proxy, his voice but that wasn't to be Mr.
Speaker 1: Mr Dorsey has sort of moved on, so we're likely
Speaker 1: to hear from Mr Dorsey at trial in October. I
Speaker 1: wanted to go back to the whistle blower because apparently
Speaker 1: it's serious enough that lawmakers have have vowed to investigate,
Speaker 1: and even in our talking about national security implications in
Speaker 1: terms of what this gentleman, the former executive, has said,
Speaker 1: how subjective are some of the charges. Well, I mean, again,
Speaker 1: it depends on which side of the hour you're standing on.
Speaker 1: For were the Twitter side they've said that basically, you know,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of inconsistencies and inaccuracies in what he has
Speaker 1: said that he has motivated, you know, by a desire
Speaker 1: to hurt the company. On the Musk side, you know,
Speaker 1: this guy is the former head of security for Twitter
Speaker 1: computer security, so not a small job, especially for a
Speaker 1: social media platform. And you know, I mean, it's really
Speaker 1: going to come down to how this plays with the judge.
Speaker 1: This is all a judge in Delaware is going to
Speaker 1: make the final call on whether Mr Musk was justified
Speaker 1: in walking away or not. Well, that trial now a
Speaker 1: little under two months away. What are the chances that
Speaker 1: it gets sailed in advance and we never make it
Speaker 1: to court. There's some talk about that. You know, there's
Speaker 1: the question as to whether Twitter really wants to have
Speaker 1: Elon Musk, you know, as its owner in the endgame. Uh.
Speaker 1: Mr Musk has made it clear that he really is
Speaker 1: not not all that interested. He's got buyer's remorse. I
Speaker 1: could see a settlement. It's it's Uh, it's certainly in
Speaker 1: both sides interests and j Jeff, is it Do we
Speaker 1: know for sure that he wants out? It seems like it,
Speaker 1: But it could be that a much lower price, um,
Speaker 1: you know, has been the motivating motivating factor all along. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, what can you tell us on that front?
Speaker 1: Does anyone really have any insight into the mind of
Speaker 1: Elon Musk? Uh, It's it's you know, it's just hard
Speaker 1: to tell whether this has all been negotiation by lawsuit
Speaker 1: or he really wants to put on his shoes and
Speaker 1: make the move again. Only the future will tell us that.
Speaker 1: You know, Jeff, from your from your commentary and from
Speaker 1: your approach, it seems like you're a bit fed up
Speaker 1: with this. I mean, is this a confusing and and
Speaker 1: sort of frustrating story to cover? It's a very interesting
Speaker 1: story to cover. It's one of the things that we
Speaker 1: do a lot in Delaware, a lot of m and
Speaker 1: a litigation in Delaware. But he's killing my summer, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? You know anyway, now now I
Speaker 1: I you know, I love it. But again he's skill
Speaker 1: in my summer. One of the things he's complaining about
Speaker 1: Elon Muska is being hounded about casual conversations that he
Speaker 1: had about this Twitter deal. But he does say all
Speaker 1: kinds of things as you mentioned there, you know, for example,
Speaker 1: taking tessela private buying Manchester United. These these two seem
Speaker 1: to be like trial balloons and thought bubbles a lot
Speaker 1: of the time. So populating the world with all his
Speaker 1: children guy, now there you go. So what kind of
Speaker 1: right to these sorts of casual remarks carry in a corporom? Well, again,
Speaker 1: you just don't know what is going to be the
Speaker 1: key thing that rings with the judge. The key question
Speaker 1: here is whether or not the Twitter folks were accurate
Speaker 1: and robust and what they told Mr Musk and the
Speaker 1: rest of the world about these bots, the spam and
Speaker 1: robot accounts that are part of their their customer base.
Speaker 1: If they were you know if they were accurate and
Speaker 1: they were complete and telling people about that, they have
Speaker 1: no trouble. Mr Musk is a big boys, the richest
Speaker 1: man in the world, and he knows what a contract means.
Speaker 1: But if in fact the Twitter folks haven't any way
Speaker 1: been concealing the number of these accounts to pump up
Speaker 1: the revenue numbers to be a problem, all right, Jeff,
Speaker 1: thank you. Jeff Peely, Bloomberg Legal reporter,