WEBVTT - Part One: Elon Musk is Being Sued, LMAO 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:05.920 What's fleet would my Max? I'm Robert Evans and this 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:09.559 is Behind the Bastards, a podcast where we talk about 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:12.280 the album Rumors, which was written by a bunch of 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.120 people who when they were making it, we're all bastards 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:17.759 to one another. Uh oh yeah. With me with me 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.959 today to talk about Rumors is a Cody Johnston and 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:23.479 Katie Stole. How are we doing today? 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:27.200 Everybody so good, so thrilled to be here to talk 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:29.120 about Rumors with you. 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:30.400 You know what I always think about. 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:33.279 I always think about how hard it must have been 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:37.120 to be Christy McVie. Yeah, oh god, yeah, you got 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:38.080 Stevie Nicks there. 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:39.040 What do you do? 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:44.480 She was wonderful. R I p uh huh, absolutely wonderful. 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:48.080 You got a little out shown shined. 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:51.839 Yeah, yeah, outshun. It's hard. It's hard to it's hard 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:53.400 to be up against that, you know. I'm sure she 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.120 was aware of it, and I think that I think 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.000 that that bleeds through. That's part of the part of 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.960 the feel that uh you know that that that the 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:09.800 album has. But who's favorite song on Rumors? Favorite song? 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:10.080 What? 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.280 What? What do we got? Is everyone just going to 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:14.440 say the chain I. 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:16.520 Was gonna say I was going to say. 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:19.440 It's too hard to not. 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:21.520 Great about. 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:23.400 I was talking about this over the weekend, just like 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.480 Flo Back in general, they're an amazing band because like 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.679 you'll hear a song and you'll know that it's necessarily 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.120 Fleetwood Mac because they've got such a wide range sound 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:34.080 and vocalists. 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:36.760 But yeah, I was gonna say the Chain. 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:42.320 Yeah, it's hard, but there's a lot. Yes, it's the Chain. 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.319 Are you talking? I also like throw your own way? 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:51.520 Yeah, jam a woman old A side and B side? 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:54.680 Are we talking old dust woman? Like there's A and 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:56.600 B Why would why would you split them up? Yeah? 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.360 Dreams, I'm sorry, there's so many. 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:06.920 Dreams, Silver Sobers. Yeah, Secondhand News I think would be 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.800 mine after after the Chain. That's just such a fucking banger. 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.040 You're right, there's Second News. 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.239 Oh my god, what a great album, What an incredible album. 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:17.840 Should we start playing it now? 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:20.280 Yeah? 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.880 Just listen to to rumors and think about how all 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.680 of the lives lost in the cocaine industry were worth it? 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:32.560 Thank god, thank god. No, we should probably get on. 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.080 This is uh, you know, a podcast, you know what, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.639 you know what the business is, right, We've been doing 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:39.240 this for five years. You guys have been on dozens 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.639 of times. Probably Now we're doing a little bit of 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.640 a different thing this year. We have another court case 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:47.560 to go over. The last time I had y'all both on, 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:50.640 we talked about the big lawsuit against Fox News, and 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.040 we went through the legal filing that Dominion's lawyers had 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.400 against that after all the discovery. Today we are reading 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:01.480 through a legal complaint from Wolf from Arnold, Eric Frozy, 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.959 Tracy Hawkins, Joseph Killian, Laura, Shan Pitite, Lars and Andrew 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.640 schlakesher Man. Why did all of you have complicated names 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:16.240 to say? Unbelievable? So these guys are all honestly yeah, yeah, 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.560 I'm I'm against them already. Oh wait, no, they're suing 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.919 Elon Musk, so I'm back on their side. So each 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:26.919 of these people are former longtime employees of Twitter, and 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:30.200 I'm very frustrated by this legal document from the start, 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.960 because the first sentence of the introduction reads, plaintiffs are 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.720 each longtime former employees of Twitter, and then in parentheses 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:42.160 colloquially and hereafter referred to as tweeps. Wait, the tweets, 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:43.240 they're the tweets. 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:43.680 T sweeps. 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:48.960 Oh, tweets, but they're choosing to be referred to as tweeps. 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:51.960 That is too tweet. That's too tweet. 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:54.480 Yeah, waity, what is. 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.200 Going on with you? Is it that like they legitimately 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.800 had so much pride in old Twitter that they had 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.200 to do this because it's a bad decision, like legally legal. 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:04.320 Yeah? 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.920 Did did the tweets decide to call themselves the tweets? 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:12.200 I can't imagine their lawyer insisted on it, right, It depends. 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:12.680 Yeah. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:14.760 That was a big part of the culture, right there 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.640 was it was that was used to talk about them, 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.600 and it was on all their little merchant stuff. Yeah, 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:22.800 but we're talking in the law. 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:24.000 Maybe you don't need to do that. 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:25.479 Yeah, maybe you could. 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.920 Yeah the alleys you want to be taken seriously, Yeah, yeah. 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:30.000 They could have. 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.560 I mean, twits is right there, but I guess right 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.359 there on connotation the twarps. 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:41.400 Yeah. So you know, uh, these these people who the 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:43.560 the lawsuit and forms has have more than sixty years 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.320 of collective experience working for the company, were all either 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:51.400 fired or constructively discharged by Twitter right after Musk took over. 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.400 Some of these guys were pretty senior. There's a vice 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.880 president in there, there's a global lead in there when 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.200 they they got ship quote, and due to that seniority, 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:04.400 some of them were in the room where it happened. 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.880 After Musk's takeover of Twitter, privy to and participants in 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.360 high level discussions and deliberations among Twitter's new leadership. After 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.560 the merger led by Musk and the cadres of sycophants 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:18.000 who were internally referred to as the Transition Team, Twitter's 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.560 new leadership deliberately, specifically and repeatedly announced their intentions to 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.800 breach contracts, violate laws, and otherwise ignore their legal obligations. 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.320 And they put those words into action. Plaintiff Killium was 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.360 forced to resign from Twitter after being repeatedly and specifically 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:36.800 directed to violate California's building codes in ways that potentially 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:40.200 put tweep lives at risk. See, if you say it 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.280 like that, you're making a very serious allegation. And I 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:48.880 can't take it seriously when people's lives, yeah, lives. 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.960 Because I was immediate like tweep yeah. No. 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:55.599 Also, I'm okay with tweeps dying. You know, I'm not 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.359 okay with people dying, but tweets. But tweets, that's some 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:00.000 other thing. Yeah. 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:00.880 Uh. 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:03.760 When they say the phrase they were in the room 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:05.880 where it happened? Is that in italics? 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.039 No, it's in quotation marks. I think it's a reference 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.480 to that book by that Trump staffer, in the room 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:12.279 where it happened. 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.560 I think it also, knowing the content and context and 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.080 the fact they're calling someone's sweeps, I think it also 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:20.880 might be a Hamilton reference. 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:22.880 Oh my god, are you kidding. 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:26.680 Herd Hamilton's in Yeah. 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.599 Oh yeah, there is from Hamilton and Hamilton. 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:31.400 Yeah. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.280 I was on one of those streamers and I watched 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:34.000 the I. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.799 Watched it, stomach it because of living well. 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.279 I couldn't. I've got a lot of thoughts on it. 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:40.039 Oh my god. 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.560 He' Julie Corney, and I think he's shouldn't have been 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.560 the guy in the in the show, but the room 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.680 yourself shouldn't be there whatever. 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.440 The room where it happened is the White House memoir 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:57.560 of John Bolton, former National Security advisor. So they're either 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:01.640 at John Bolton reference either way, I'm not. 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:04.359 It's definitely. 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:11.240 Question guys and girls, everyone, do you want us? 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:12.360 Do you want us to take you? 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:14.840 Seriously? Don't call yourself sweeps. 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.080 Don't get yourself sweeps and don't reference either Hamilton or 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.920 John Bolton legal filing. 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:25.360 Don't pitch yeah the first three sentences. 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:28.320 Like you are alleging that Elon Musk ordered you to 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.440 violate California building codes in a way that put human 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:34.120 lives at risk. You don't need to be tweet like. 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:37.520 We don't need to make this like like I'm just 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:38.840 I'm very frustrated. 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:41.240 You don't need to put on a pants suit and 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:42.320 sing hallelujah. 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:49.680 Well, yeah, of the fucking Twitter old guard. Yeah, very funny. 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.760 I expected to be more immediately on board with the 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.480 people suing Elon Musk because I hate him so much, 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:57.880 but they have done the hard work of making me 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:02.360 right in the middle so far I am. Yeah, I 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.640 am steering down the median on a fucking crotch rocket 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:10.720 at the at the moment, so in ways that potentially 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.679 put tweep lives at risk in building the Twitter hotel 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.400 rooms Musk wanted for tweets he would be pushing to 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.000 work through the night. Plaintiff Hawkins was forced to resign 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.720 after Musk and his transition team fundamentally changed the nature 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.640 of her job and threatened her professional reputation by directing 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.880 Twitter to breach its leases and essentially steal space from 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:32.400 its landlords. Elon doesn't play rent. They're still doing a 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.320 little I'm stealing space from landlords I don't know. 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.760 Again, I'm very frustrated against. 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.400 Because like the thing that Elon's that comes next is 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.559 like he one of Elon's transition team members told Hawkins 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.040 Elon doesn't pay rent, And Elon told me he would 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.719 only pay rent over his dead body, And I'm frustrated 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.640 at the degree of like again, especially since he spent 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.920 so much time like flipping out over crime and San Francisco. 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.840 He's like this big law and order fascist weirdo. Now 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.320 the fact that he just refuses to pay rent, like 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.760 fuck him, Like that makes me extra angry for Elon Musk, 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.440 but also, like, I don't know the the it is 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.600 hard to make someone get too outraged about stealing from 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.199 like a giant corporate landlord. Yes, there's a lot of 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.840 tension here if you want to, if you want me 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.400 to be like, well, maybe there's one cool corporate landlord 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:28.920 I don't know send in like mercenaries to force Twitter 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.800 out of their offices. Right, there's an impound their servers. 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:35.080 You know, like be a real asshole about it, and 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.199 then at least you'll be a cool, like corporate ghoul. 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:41.760 You know, go for it, guys, do do what Think about? 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:45.160 Think about what that guy, the bad guy in RoboCop 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.839 would do in this situation. You know, he would send 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.320 he would send Bodiker in to like fucking beat the 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.960 shit out of Elon Musk when he's having a cocaine party. 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:58.360 You know that that's what he'd you know, I don't know. 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.559 Yeah, if at two oh nine destroyed Twitter's offices, I'd 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:01.959 be like, all. 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:06.240 Right, well, I'd be like, what okay, Okay, one landlord 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:12.880 gets to stay a landlord. So both Killian and Hawkins 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.079 were told that from Musk, the fact that Twitter was 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:18.280 legally or contractually obligated to pay a particular sum would 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:20.839 be irrelevant to the decision of whether to actually pay 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.400 it when that amount came due. That must operate it 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.280 on a zero cost basis, and that Twitter would therefore 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.600 simply decide afresh for each significant expense whether or not 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:31.920 it wanted to pay what it owed. This seems very illegal, 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.480 but he's got enough money that it's not right, like 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.520 because he can just hold it up in court for 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:44.040 forever and yeah, it'll be fine. It's very frustrating. There's 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.200 a lot of people on the streets in San Francisco 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.480 because they couldn't pay you know, what they owed in 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.839 rent or whatever, and Elon's just going to continue advocating 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.960 they'd be put in death camps. I guess that's cool, exactly. 0:10:54.880 --> 0:11:00.600 It is interesting how differently we treat these two very 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:01.680 different Uh. 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.040 Yes, examples of rentivation, Like. 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.120 I would be surprised if the total number of people 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.200 evicted in San Francisco last year, like the amount that 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.319 they owed that got them evicted, equalled what Musk has 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:16.920 failed to pay on his properties. 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:23.040 Yeah, it's just thinking about yeah, yeah, anyway, okay. 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.800 And back on board with yeah, back on with the tweets. 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.640 The tweets say that Musk flatly refused to pay them. 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:32.600 They're contractually required severance. This was severance that Twitter and 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:34.800 Musk had in order to induce tweets to stay through 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:36.920 the close of the merger, promise would be paid if 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.600 Musk conducted a layoff in which Twitter and ex Holdings 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.800 had bound themselves to pay under the terms of the 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.040 merger agreement. Seems clear that they owed this money. Uh. 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.080 And basically the alliation is that Musk never even intended 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:50.800 to pay people, right, Like he was just lying to 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:54.360 get people to work without pay, which is like, I 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.520 don't know, that's in like the the neighborhood. That's like, 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:00.640 that's that's that's that's illegal, Like you're not allowed to 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:02.280 make people work without getting them. 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.400 No, I would say, it's not just in the neighborhood. 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:08.559 It's staunchly like, yeah, that seems like crimey. 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:09.720 That's like the town. 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:14.280 Even if it's not crimey, it's unethical and immoral and 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:15.679 he's a bad person. 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.040 I'll just there. 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:19.760 Yeah, but how could it not be crimey? 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.080 Yeah. Musk went so far as to insist publicly that 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.640 tweeps he fired are not entitled to any severance at 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.880 all beyond warn act notice. In hindsight, it appears that 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:32.200 he also inserted a legally ineffective, specific no third party 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.480 beneficiaries clause in the merger agreements provisions relating to severance 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.719 in a failed attempt to prevent tweeps from enforcing those provisions. 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.559 Plaintiffs bring this action for a declaratory judgment against the 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.280 merger agreement and the related but independent promises and representations 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.680 to the tweeps entitle them to the promise severance to 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.480 recover that severance, as well as punitive damages for defendant's 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.400 flavorant bad faith. YadA YadA YadA. They quote a bunch 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:58.640 of laws that Musk probably did in fact break. Yeah, 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:02.240 So uh we go in we we detail the case 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:04.520 of like a couple of these these people. They're just 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:06.520 kind of like listing their work histories, which I don't 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.880 feel like we need to know for any particularly reading. Yeah, 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.520 worked at Twitter, spent a lot of time as a 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:18.600 as a tweeper, tweeping up, you know, pretty hard. Defendant 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.079 Musk is, on information and belief, a citizen of the 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:24.520 state of Texas residing in Bokachka, Texas. I wonder how 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:26.640 much time he spends in Boka, Chica. But people have 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.080 been allowed to fake being from Texas for forever. We 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.480 had a whole president do it once. Look at look 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:35.679 at look it up people. All right, So now we're 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:39.080 up to the factual background statement here. This litigation arises 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:43.400 out of Twitter's Sorry My Mouse. This litigation arises out 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:45.719 of Twitter's attempt to avoid paying its ex employees. The 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.600 Sefarence that promised them. Twitter made these promises many times 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:50.640 and in many ways. Twitter made these promises in their 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.360 initial offer letters to the plaintiffs. Twitter made the same 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.040 promise explicit in its agreement to sell the company to Musk, 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:58.559 negotiating for a clause in the agreement that protected its 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.240 employees by ensuring they would have seen received seference at 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.640 least as favorable during the post merger period as they 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.319 had under the old management. And Twitter man went out 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:08.840 of its way to make additional promises and representations to 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.520 its employees to allay their concerns in advance of its 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:13.600 purchase by Musk and to convince them to stay employed 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.439 at Twitter. Penning the close of this transaction, Twitter broke 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.480 all these promises, breaching its enforceable agreements with its former 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:21.280 employees in the process. Now I'm going to say this 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.720 right now, I suspect the people who sold Twitter to Musk, 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:29.000 the former people running it, the former board, were well 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.200 aware that all these employees were going to get fucked 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.440 and simply didn't care because they got their bag right. 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:35.840 Yeah, that's why the deal was made. Because I have 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:37.760 had them so much. 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:43.360 I don't have any sympathy or uh. I don't know 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.120 care for the people that sold Twitter in general. 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.240 No, no, I mean I I yeah. It seems like 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.040 they ought to be liable to some extent too. There's 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.320 some sort of due diligence they should. I'm sure they 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.080 did enough legally. I don't think they're actually they actually 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.720 have any exposure there. I just think it's in more. Yeah. 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.480 So it just kind of goes through the details of 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.960 the merger, the details of like how they set up 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:12.480 this severance agreement. So Twitter committed to providing employees with 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.800 two months base salary or incentive based salary for sales employees, 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.080 pro rated performance bonuses through as through all as though 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:21.920 all triggers for such bonuses has been hit. The cash 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.040 value of any RSUs those are like internal stock units 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.480 that would have vested within three months of separation cash 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:31.440 contribution through the continuance of healthcare coverage. So it's like 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:33.720 a pretty good severance agreement. I think it's better than 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:38.920 we got it cracked. Yeah you know that right, Yeah, 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:39.760 that sounds what they. 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.360 I can't speak to that because they never hired me. 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:49.280 Yeah. Well they yeah, I corporate America something none of 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.400 us have any issues with. I don't know all these tweets. Yeah, 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.720 these tweets seemed like they were promised a pretty sweet 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.160 deal if they stayed on to like ensure the company 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.480 didn't fall apart right before the deal and then Musk 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:07.800 immediately months Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So they 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.600 list some of the different things that like, you know, 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:13.040 Musk said during the process of like that whole back 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:14.720 and forth of or whether or not he was going 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.800 to acquire it. The lawsuit against Twitter. Okay, here we 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:20.920 get to a point where we have that's titled Twitter's 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.680 employees are worried about the pending Musk takeover, and Twitter 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.880 makes representations to address their concerns. This should be some 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.080 inside gossip. With the promise of Twitter being acquired by 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.120 one of its fiercest critics, many tweets were understandably very 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.680 concerned about their future, particularly the particular about the potential 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.240 effects of the merger and their jobs. Layoffs had already 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:41.760 been discussed as a possibility even prior to the acquisition, 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:43.840 and it was widely reported that cuts would be needed 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.120 as a consequence of the additional debt that Twitter was 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.160 incurring as part of the acquisition. Given his criticisms, it 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.880 was also viewed that Musk would make additional material changes 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.760 at Twitter. Twitter took these concerns very seriously. If a 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.040 significant number of tweets were worried enough about their future 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.400 to seek new employment, it would harm Twitter's ability to 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.120 continue to function smoothly while the deal was in process. 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:06.080 Twitter therefore took several steps to reassure its employees they 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:13.400 negotiated this merger agreement d D. Let me get down 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:18.720 here to the next set of good stuff. Twitter also 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.280 benefited from a degree of stability via employee retention during 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.359 the pendency of the acquisition and the related litigation that 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.600 reduced the chances of an acquisition threatening material adverse event, 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.639 protecting the chances the deal would be consummated, and Musk 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.160 and extending an offer to entice employees to stay pending 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.399 his acquisition, also received stability the promise of a company 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.879 that would be when he completed his takeover, largely in 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.119 the condition it was made before the offer, allowing him 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.399 to begin to reshape Twitter from a stable foundation. Nevertheless, 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:48.800 tweeps remained concerned about the consequences of the acquisition. Twitter 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:51.760 issued an acquisition FAQ to provide employees with a resource 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:56.760 The FAQ detailed reassurances and representations to employees regarding their compensation, 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.760 how equity grants would be handled. It explicitly stated that 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:02.520 in the event of a layoff, any employees whose job 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.320 would be is impacted would be eligible for a severance. 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.520 They had meetings and stuff about this. Twitter orally communicated 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.440 to its employees that Musk had made the severance stability 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:17.920 promise and the merger agreement. Yeah. Yeah. At one point 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.679 to tweet posted to Twitter's internal slack, tagging Twitter's c 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.119 suite leadership and communicating that the details of twitter severance 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.560 would be critical to employees' decisions to remain pending the 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:29.639 close of the merger. So yeah, they're really building a 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.199 case here that, like the entire both the value to 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:36.840 the people who owned Twitter and ran it previously and 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.639 the value to Musk was reliant upon folks staying and 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.160 keeping the site stable, and that they had to do that. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:44.480 To do that, both of them basically had to run 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:48.280 a con on the workforce of Twitter. I think it's 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.920 been more of a con on Musk than it has 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:56.159 been on like He's It has kind of fallen apart 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:58.000 for him as well, because the news just came out 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:00.600 today that the company's valued at about a third of 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:01.760 what it was when he bought it. 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:03.280 But I laughed out loud. 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.800 Both of them definitely like had to screw over all 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:11.359 of these people in order to in order to carry 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.320 out their plans. Like, it seems pretty clear what was 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:17.120 going on all around here. 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:19.679 Yeah, they just wanted everyone to shut up so they 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:20.840 could make the deal happen. 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:25.119 Yeah, Almost immediately upon a Musk's arrival at Twitter, he 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.680 instead purported to terminate executives for cause on information and belief. 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:31.240 This occurred in some cases within hours of the takeover. 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:34.200 In fact, on information and belief, Musk did not even 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.240 intend to have Twitter pay the director's office and officers 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.879 in dimnification and insurance premiums as required by section six 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:44.280 point six of the merger agreement. On information and belief, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.200 a Twitter employee with access to Twitter's accounts and capacity 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.360 to execute the payment, made that payment despite musk specific 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.640 objections preventing a brief a breach of the merger agreement, 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:56.800 and this employee was fired for doing so. So. Basically, 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:01.040 Musk was required to pay like in dimnification and insurance 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.399 premiums as part of the merger agreement, which is like 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:06.199 that's something he's required to do under state law to 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.080 keep the company like functioning legally. And he directed an 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.919 employee to like cancel the payment because he's saying basically, 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.160 don't pay money for anything. And so this person follows 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.360 the law and makes the payment and Musk fires them. Wow, 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:28.720 very funny. Yeah, leadership, Yeah, no, no, yeah, so obviously, 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.680 I mean it is that yeah, yeah, what's episode? 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.160 Oh just that broken brain thing of just like you're 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.720 so rich and powerful and you have this idea of 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.439 yourself and your view that you're like, just don't do it, 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.040 just don't do anything right, just like it doesn't matter, 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:50.000