Speaker 1: Because we have been discussing extensively. Today Elon Musk has
Speaker 1: confirmed plans to buy Twitter for the original offer price
Speaker 1: of fifty four dollars twenty cents a share, and this
Speaker 1: potentially helps to avoid a courtroom fights over the one
Speaker 1: of the most contentious acquisitions in recent history. Here to
Speaker 1: talk about it some more, We've got Jeff Feely, he's
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Legal reporter, and Jeff, is this a case of
Speaker 1: legal expediency? Did the the upcoming court case over this
Speaker 1: not look good for Elon Musk? It did not look good.
Speaker 1: I think that Mr Musk and his lawyers took a
Speaker 1: look at some of the pre trial rulings in the case.
Speaker 1: They sniffed the legal winds and they didn't like the smell. So,
Speaker 1: you know, many people had predicted that this was going
Speaker 1: to be the outcome, one way or the other. It's
Speaker 1: very difficult to prove that you can legitimately get out
Speaker 1: of one of these merger and acquisition deals without some extreme,
Speaker 1: you know, events happening. Still in all some people might
Speaker 1: say that the board and Twitter shareholders called Elon Musk's
Speaker 1: bluff and they won. They did. And it's unusual because
Speaker 1: Elon has a pretty good track record in court. He
Speaker 1: was in Delaware last year on another case involving Solar
Speaker 1: City where some of the Tesla investors were unhappy about that,
Speaker 1: and he was the only director who didn't settle and
Speaker 1: he won. So this comes as a little bit of
Speaker 1: a shock to Elon watchers. So it looks as if
Speaker 1: he's going to buy the company. Now let's assume there's
Speaker 1: not yet another twist to this tale. But what sort
Speaker 1: of job is he gonna have on his hands here?
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking particularly in terms of staph morale. I mean,
Speaker 1: in the lead up to this trial, Twitter was spending
Speaker 1: months framing Elon Musk is capricious and unreliable. Now he's
Speaker 1: going to be the boss. Yeah, he spent the same
Speaker 1: months trash and Twitter on Twitter, So I mean, and
Speaker 1: it's it's not exactly a marriagement in heaven. Look, the
Speaker 1: view that we got of Twitter's internal operations in this
Speaker 1: case is not a pretty one. So Mr Musk has
Speaker 1: some work set out ahead of them to get things
Speaker 1: organized and get you know, get the trains running on time, whatnot.
Speaker 1: But you know, again, this is a great time of
Speaker 1: uncertainty for Twitter employees and as some people have suggested,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of resume polishing going on right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the CEO is most likely. I mean, I suppose it
Speaker 1: would be out as a result of this, right, Um,
Speaker 1: and saw the saw the text back and forth right
Speaker 1: that we're releasing earlier last week where he and and uh,
Speaker 1: the Twitter ceo, we're just snapping each other's heads off.
Speaker 1: So that's one thing. Um, I wonder, you know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of interesting that Tesla's share price went up because
Speaker 1: you know, obviously for for some Tesla shareholders, Uh, every
Speaker 1: minute that Musk spends on Twitter is a minute away
Speaker 1: from Tesla. I wonder whether or not. Another interesting aspect
Speaker 1: is that I guess investors believe that this will go
Speaker 1: through now because they bid the thing up to fifty
Speaker 1: two dollars. We don't know what will happen to the
Speaker 1: share price afterwards. But can we glean much from these
Speaker 1: the action of the share prices in both cases, I
Speaker 1: am terrible at predicting, you know, how things can be
Speaker 1: affected like this. I would have thought Twitter share price
Speaker 1: would have gone down myself. I mean, I'm sorry Textla's
Speaker 1: share price. Yeah, And it's curious to whether or not
Speaker 1: the Twitter share price because of the damage that Paul mentioned.
Speaker 1: A lot of damage has been done to the brand
Speaker 1: and to you know, a lot of executives leaving and everything. Uh,
Speaker 1: after the deal closes, it'll be fun to watch it then, right.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's really it's a shame that it's
Speaker 1: come to this because you know, this is a company
Speaker 1: that has a lot of promise, has had a lot
Speaker 1: of promise, and you know, people are just now on
Speaker 1: certain how things are going to go moving forward with
Speaker 1: Mr Musk, you know running the show. Yeah, and to
Speaker 1: what degree is he going to be able to effectively
Speaker 1: run the show because Jack Dulcy was asked to leave Twitter.
Speaker 1: He had two jobs see of Twitter and CEO of
Speaker 1: Nara Block. Your Musk has got tests SpaceX and Twitter.
Speaker 1: How is this going to work out? Only time will tell.
Speaker 1: I mean Mr Musk has surprised people before boundless amounts
Speaker 1: of energy, creativity, innovation. I wouldn't bet against the guy,
Speaker 1: but you know, I'm just an old reporter. I'm not
Speaker 1: I can't see the future. Well, since we have a
Speaker 1: little bit of time, Jeff, what are some of the
Speaker 1: changes that we can expect from Elon Musk? That might
Speaker 1: inject some enthusiasm into Twitter. Well, you know, again, I
Speaker 1: suspect that you're going to see a loosening of the
Speaker 1: regular regulations or restrictions on people's speech on Twitter. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of speculation about allowing former President
Speaker 1: Trump to return. There's been a lot of concern about
Speaker 1: the potential damage to democracy by allowing, you know, more
Speaker 1: of that kind of stuff to be disseminated. I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of pull and tug at this point,
Speaker 1: and we're just gonna have to wait and see how
Speaker 1: it shakes out. Yeah, alright, Jeff, very interesting. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: a story to watch for sure. Thank you for clarifying
Speaker 1: much of it for us. Jeff Feely