Twitter is still being sold to Elon Musk, executives at the social media giant said Thursday — despite Musk’s claim last week that the deal was “on hold” and his repeated questioning of the company’s user count.
Hours after the discussion, claims surfaced that Musk sexually harassed a flight attendant on a SpaceX corporate jet in 2016 — and was paid $250,000 for her silence in 2018.
Musk said there was “a lot more to the story” and described it as “a politically motivated hit.”
When initially asked why he wanted to buy Twitter, the South African billionaire said it was to promote free speech and that he intended to “clean up” Twitter and get rid of spam and bots. Then, on Friday, he said the $44 billion deal was “temporarily on hold” until Twitter could prove less than 5 percent of its users were fake or spam accounts.
“This is a big deal,” he said Monday at a podcast summit.
“It seems like you said, ‘Okay, I agree to buy your house.’ They say the house has less than 5 percent termites. That’s an acceptable number. But if it turns out to be 90 percent termites, that’s not okay. It’s not the same house.”
Musk remains convinced that Twitter’s leadership is not being honest with him about the number of bots, and on Thursday tweeted a meme of an astronaut labeled “Elon” staring into the abyss and saying, ” Wait, are they all bots?”
Another astronaut with the caption “Twitter Board” holds a gun to his head and replies, “It’s always been like this.”
Elon Musk, 50, has repeatedly questioned whether a high number of Twitter users are fake accounts. On Thursday, he reiterated his claim that executives lied about the data
Musk tweeted a meme on Thursday showing him looking at Twitter data and noting that many accounts are bots — while the Twitter board said they always knew that
Musk insisted Thursday afternoon that he wasn’t spending an inordinate amount of time on the Twitter deal
When CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted a lengthy explanation of the 5 percent figure given in company documents before Musk made his offer, the billionaire responded with a poop emoji.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has insisted less than 5 percent of accounts are fake
Musk tweeted Thursday afternoon, “To be clear, I spend <5% (but actually) of my time on Twitter acquisitions. It's not rocket science!
“Yesterday was Giga Texas, today is Starbase. I think about Tesla 24/7.”
He attached the “distracted man” meme, being distracted by Twitter while an angry Tesla looked on.
“That may seem like below, but it’s not true,” Musk said.
Analysts have speculated that Musk is fixating on the fake account issue to either go out of business or drive the price down.
Amid the turmoil, Insider reported Thursday that SpaceX paid a flight attendant $250,000 to settle a 2018 sexual misconduct lawsuit against Musk.
The flight attendant worked as a contract cabin crew member for SpaceX’s fleet of corporate jets.
She accused Musk of exposing his erect penis to her, rubbing her leg without consent and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage, Insider reported.
Musk said there was “a lot more to this story.”
He added, “If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this probably isn’t the first time in my entire 30-year career that this has come to light,” calling the story a “politically motivated hit.”
However, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg, employees at the San Francisco-based company were told on Thursday that the deal was still ongoing.
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Musk said he was still involved in the $44 billion purchase of the social media company pending an investigation into how many spam accounts are on the site
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top attorney, said Thursday the deal was still ongoing
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top attorney and head of policy, who cried as she discussed Musk’s plans for the company last month, told workers at an all-hands meeting that there was “no deal.” there who is being put on hold”. ‘
The deal will still go through for the $44 billion agreed on April 25, executives said. The deal fixes Twitter shares at $54.20 each — a significant gain over the past few weeks, when they traded as low as $36.50.
Twitter shares rose about 2 percent after the news of the meeting. The stock had previously fallen 1.7 percent.
The stock closed at $37.29 on Thursday.
Twitter’s shares rose slightly after it was revealed that executives said the deal would go ahead
Twitter’s share price has plummeted since Musk announced on April 25 that his offer had been accepted and fears he will back out of the deal
Gadde told staff that Musk must do “everything he can” to ensure he gets his funding in order to close the deal.
She said it’s possible Twitter could try to “enforce” the terms of the deal “if we ever had to do that in court.”
She added that getting that move would be “quite rare.”
If the deal falls through, Musk will have to pay a $1 billion fee.
The world’s richest man, Musk, is worth an estimated $210 billion – but he’s lost $49 billion since his deal to buy Twitter was announced, according to Fortune. Tesla shares are now down 28 percent since Musk unveiled his bid to buy Twitter on April 14, causing the massive losses.
Ned Segal, Twitter’s chief financial officer, said the gap between Twitter’s stock price and Musk’s offer reflected some doubts that the deal would go through.
Musk said he could “theoretically” buy the company himself, but he’s been working with investors to encourage them to come on board and to limit his own cash spending. Musk would have to sell stakes in his other companies to pay for the Twitter purchase: he’s sold a few but doesn’t seem interested in selling more.
Segal said executives are still working with Musk and his team and are working with them “regularly” throughout the process to prepare for Musk’s acquisition.
Segal also discussed how Twitter’s board of directors made the decision to sell to Musk, which included an analysis of Twitter’s business prospects should a deal not materialize.
Twitter’s annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for May 25th.
The shareholders’ vote on approving the deal with Musk will take place at a later date.