WEBVTT - Jef Feeley on Musk, Twitter (Audio)

0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:03.320
<v Speaker 1>Because we have been discussing extensively. Today Elon Musk has

0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.680
<v Speaker 1>confirmed plans to buy Twitter for the original offer price

0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.000
<v Speaker 1>of fifty four dollars twenty cents a share, and this

0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.080
<v Speaker 1>potentially helps to avoid a courtroom fights over the one

0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:16.639
<v Speaker 1>of the most contentious acquisitions in recent history. Here to

0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:19.040
<v Speaker 1>talk about it some more, We've got Jeff Feely, he's

0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:23.200
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Legal reporter, and Jeff, is this a case of

0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:27.480
<v Speaker 1>legal expediency? Did the the upcoming court case over this

0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.600
<v Speaker 1>not look good for Elon Musk? It did not look good.

0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.320
<v Speaker 1>I think that Mr Musk and his lawyers took a

0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:37.720
<v Speaker 1>look at some of the pre trial rulings in the case.

0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:42.440
<v Speaker 1>They sniffed the legal winds and they didn't like the smell. So,

0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:48.440
<v Speaker 1>you know, many people had predicted that this was going

0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:50.760
<v Speaker 1>to be the outcome, one way or the other. It's

0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:55.200
<v Speaker 1>very difficult to prove that you can legitimately get out

0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.240
<v Speaker 1>of one of these merger and acquisition deals without some extreme,

0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.040
<v Speaker 1>you know, events happening. Still in all some people might

0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:09.280
<v Speaker 1>say that the board and Twitter shareholders called Elon Musk's

0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:13.400
<v Speaker 1>bluff and they won. They did. And it's unusual because

0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:16.360
<v Speaker 1>Elon has a pretty good track record in court. He

0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:20.600
<v Speaker 1>was in Delaware last year on another case involving Solar

0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.039
<v Speaker 1>City where some of the Tesla investors were unhappy about that,

0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.120
<v Speaker 1>and he was the only director who didn't settle and

0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.039
<v Speaker 1>he won. So this comes as a little bit of

0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:34.440
<v Speaker 1>a shock to Elon watchers. So it looks as if

0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.640
<v Speaker 1>he's going to buy the company. Now let's assume there's

0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:42.080
<v Speaker 1>not yet another twist to this tale. But what sort

0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.000
<v Speaker 1>of job is he gonna have on his hands here?

0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.000
<v Speaker 1>And I'm thinking particularly in terms of staph morale. I mean,

0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.720
<v Speaker 1>in the lead up to this trial, Twitter was spending

0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:53.920
<v Speaker 1>months framing Elon Musk is capricious and unreliable. Now he's

0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.600
<v Speaker 1>going to be the boss. Yeah, he spent the same

0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.080
<v Speaker 1>months trash and Twitter on Twitter, So I mean, and

0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.920
<v Speaker 1>it's it's not exactly a marriagement in heaven. Look, the

0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:06.760
<v Speaker 1>view that we got of Twitter's internal operations in this

0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:09.919
<v Speaker 1>case is not a pretty one. So Mr Musk has

0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.280
<v Speaker 1>some work set out ahead of them to get things

0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.320
<v Speaker 1>organized and get you know, get the trains running on time, whatnot.

0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.600
<v Speaker 1>But you know, again, this is a great time of

0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:25.800
<v Speaker 1>uncertainty for Twitter employees and as some people have suggested,

0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:30.760
<v Speaker 1>there's a lot of resume polishing going on right now. Yeah,

0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.760
<v Speaker 1>the CEO is most likely. I mean, I suppose it

0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.240
<v Speaker 1>would be out as a result of this, right, Um,

0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:41.560
<v Speaker 1>and saw the saw the text back and forth right

0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:46.040
<v Speaker 1>that we're releasing earlier last week where he and and uh,

0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:49.519
<v Speaker 1>the Twitter ceo, we're just snapping each other's heads off.

0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:55.680
<v Speaker 1>So that's one thing. Um, I wonder, you know, it's

0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:58.840
<v Speaker 1>kind of interesting that Tesla's share price went up because

0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:03.120
<v Speaker 1>you know, obviously for for some Tesla shareholders, Uh, every

0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.079
<v Speaker 1>minute that Musk spends on Twitter is a minute away

0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:10.840
<v Speaker 1>from Tesla. I wonder whether or not. Another interesting aspect

0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.720
<v Speaker 1>is that I guess investors believe that this will go

0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.120
<v Speaker 1>through now because they bid the thing up to fifty

0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.560
<v Speaker 1>two dollars. We don't know what will happen to the

0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.720
<v Speaker 1>share price afterwards. But can we glean much from these

0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:24.840
<v Speaker 1>the action of the share prices in both cases, I

0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.720
<v Speaker 1>am terrible at predicting, you know, how things can be

0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.240
<v Speaker 1>affected like this. I would have thought Twitter share price

0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.560
<v Speaker 1>would have gone down myself. I mean, I'm sorry Textla's

0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:38.240
<v Speaker 1>share price. Yeah, And it's curious to whether or not

0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.640
<v Speaker 1>the Twitter share price because of the damage that Paul mentioned.

0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:44.120
<v Speaker 1>A lot of damage has been done to the brand

0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.520
<v Speaker 1>and to you know, a lot of executives leaving and everything. Uh,

0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.040
<v Speaker 1>after the deal closes, it'll be fun to watch it then, right.

0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:55.280
<v Speaker 1>You know, it's it's really it's a shame that it's

0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.480
<v Speaker 1>come to this because you know, this is a company

0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:00.480
<v Speaker 1>that has a lot of promise, has had a lot

0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:04.640
<v Speaker 1>of promise, and you know, people are just now on

0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:08.360
<v Speaker 1>certain how things are going to go moving forward with

0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:13.400
<v Speaker 1>Mr Musk, you know running the show. Yeah, and to

0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:15.119
<v Speaker 1>what degree is he going to be able to effectively

0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.680
<v Speaker 1>run the show because Jack Dulcy was asked to leave Twitter.

0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:20.920
<v Speaker 1>He had two jobs see of Twitter and CEO of

0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:25.320
<v Speaker 1>Nara Block. Your Musk has got tests SpaceX and Twitter.

0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:30.679
<v Speaker 1>How is this going to work out? Only time will tell.

0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:34.560
<v Speaker 1>I mean Mr Musk has surprised people before boundless amounts

0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:39.320
<v Speaker 1>of energy, creativity, innovation. I wouldn't bet against the guy,

0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.560
<v Speaker 1>but you know, I'm just an old reporter. I'm not

0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.159
<v Speaker 1>I can't see the future. Well, since we have a

0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:48.640
<v Speaker 1>little bit of time, Jeff, what are some of the

0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.560
<v Speaker 1>changes that we can expect from Elon Musk? That might

0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:56.599
<v Speaker 1>inject some enthusiasm into Twitter. Well, you know, again, I

0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.800
<v Speaker 1>suspect that you're going to see a loosening of the

0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:05.400
<v Speaker 1>regular regulations or restrictions on people's speech on Twitter. Uh.

0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:09.000
<v Speaker 1>There's been a lot of speculation about allowing former President

0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.920
<v Speaker 1>Trump to return. There's been a lot of concern about

0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:18.200
<v Speaker 1>the potential damage to democracy by allowing, you know, more

0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.800
<v Speaker 1>of that kind of stuff to be disseminated. I think

0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:23.799
<v Speaker 1>there's a lot of pull and tug at this point,

0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:26.040
<v Speaker 1>and we're just gonna have to wait and see how

0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:30.520
<v Speaker 1>it shakes out. Yeah, alright, Jeff, very interesting. Uh, it's

0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:33.400
<v Speaker 1>a story to watch for sure. Thank you for clarifying

0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:34.839
<v Speaker 1>much of it for us. Jeff Feely