Why Musk stops (for now) on Twitter

The news of the day is that Elon Musk stops for Twitter. The $ 44 billion deal hasn’t blown yet, but before paying the due Musk wants to understand if the bogus profiles really represent less than 5 percent of the total of nearly 400 million users, as claimed in official documents. What if it’s 6 or 7 percent? What exactly are we talking about? Could the great operation to restore freedom of expression and save democracies, as presented by Musk, jump for a million more bogus profiles?

No, but the price can change a lot. After all, the value of Twitter, since Musk presented the first offer a month ago, has changed a lot. Following what is happening on the stock exchange to other tech stocks, Twitter’s stock is also down and the forecasts for the markets are not good. In short, Musk, when the deal is concluded, in about six months, he risks in the end to pay Twitter much more than its value. At the same time, Tesla’s stock has also been down for a month, indeed, in downhill.

What does it has to do with it? It has to do with it: a substantial part of Musk’s assets are made up of Tesla shares which are therefore worth less. Translated: Compared to a month ago when the deal seemed done, Musk has less money and Twitter is worth less. It is therefore he tries to negotiate on the price. He does as someone who proposed to buy a house three months ago, before the war, with very low rates, and now he finds himself with a much higher mortgage: he tries every foothold to renegotiate. Can he skip it all? He can jump, paying a billion dollar penalty, the two sides can go back; but in that case the one who risks jumping is Twitter. An earthquake-stricken, seduced and abandoned company in a declining market would really struggle to go on. For this an agreement with a different price is possible. The saga continues.