Skip to main content

Seeking 'Healthy' Debate Of Ideas, Elon Musk Nears Twitter Deal Finish Line

Seeking 'Healthy' Debate Of Ideas, Elon Musk Nears Twitter Deal Finish Line

Musk's on-again, off-again acquisition of the influential website appeared to be entering its final phase

New York:

Closing in on his Twitter megadeal, Elon Musk said Thursday his goal is to enable "healthy" debate of ideas and counter the tendency of social media to splinter into partisan "echo chambers."

The billionaire entrepreneur pursued the deal "because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence," Musk tweeted on the eve of a court-imposed deadline to finalize the $44 billion purchase.

The Tesla boss's on-again, off-again acquisition of the influential website appeared to be entering its final phase after Delaware Judge Kathaleen McCormick paused litigation on October 6 on a Twitter suit against Musk after he previously walked away from the deal.

Since then Musk has reportedly been lining up financing.

While there is always the chance of a last-minute curveball, more signs pointed to the deal's likely closure.

The New York Stock Exchange posted a pending order to suspend trading in Twitter before Friday's session.

Shares of Twitter -- which vaulted higher after McCormick's October 6 move -- climbed 1.2 percent to $53.97 by 1500 GMT Thursday, not far below the $54.20 purchase price in Musk's deal.

"We expect Musk and Twitter to officially close the deal by Friday morning with Cinderella finally getting the glass slipper that fits," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.

"We also believe the overhang on Tesla is now removed with Musk having likely sold stock this week to fund the rest of the Twitter deal."

"I think on Friday, we'll get an announcement that says that Elon Musk has purchased Twitter," University of California, Berkeley law professor Adam Badawi told AFP.

But if the buyout fails to close by the end of the business day, the judge will likely "bring the hammer down" and head quickly to trial, Badawi added.

'Chief Twit'

Musk originally agreed to the Twitter acquisition in April, but soon pulled back, saying in July he was canceling the contract because he was misled by Twitter over the number of fake "bot" accounts -- allegations rejected by the company.

Twitter in turn sought to prove Musk, who also heads aerospace firm SpaceX, was contriving excuses to walk away simply because he changed his mind.

A trial on Twitter's suit was scheduled for mid-October, but McCormick's order gave the parties until 5:00 pm on October 28, 2022 to close the transaction.

Fresh questions about the combination surfaced last week following reports Musk planned deep staff cuts at Twitter and that US President Joe Biden's administration was weighing a national security review.

But on Wednesday, Musk changed his Twitter profile to "Chief Twit" and posted a video of himself walking into the company's California headquarters carrying a sink.

The South African-born serial entrepreneur cuts a polarizing figure in American business, with supporters cheering his disruptive spirit and execution prowess at Tesla and detractors criticizing him as a megalomaniac with a potentially dangerous tendency to wade into geopolitical topics in which he lacks expertise, such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In his latest statement Thursday, Musk said much of the public speculation about his intentions in the deal had been "wrong" as he insisted his goals were noble.

In pursuing Twitter, "I didn't do it because it would be easy. I didn't do it to make more money," Musk said.

"I did so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility."

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Featured Video Of The Day

Adblock test (Why?)



from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/Q5kjis6 https://ift.tt/yeD43VP
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

North Korea Says It Tested New Strategic Cruise Missile

North Korea test-fired a new generation of strategic cruise missile on Wednesday. (Representational) Seoul: North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, Seoul's military said, the latest in a series of tension-raising moves by the nuclear-armed state. Hours later, North Korea appeared to confirm the firing, saying it had carried out its first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles it is developing, the Pulhwasal-3-31. Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an "underwater nuclear weapon system" and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile. "Our military detected several cruise missiles launched by North Korea towards the Yellow Sea at around 7:00 am today," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current UN sanctions against Pyongyang. Cruise...

18-Year-Old Killed By Friends Over Mobile Game Password In Bengal: Cops

According to cops, accused "friends" attempted to burn the victim after killing him. (Representational) Kolkata: An argument over sharing the password of an online mobile game allegedly led to the murder of a teenage boy by four of his friends in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, a senior police officer said. The body of 18-year-old Papai Das, who had been missing since January 8, was discovered near Nishindra Ghat of the feeder canal in Farakka on Monday, police said. Papai, a class 10 student, was reportedly killed by his four "close" friends after a disagreement over sharing the password for a mobile online game. The accused individuals have been arrested, police added. "These five individuals used to play online games at one of the quarters of the Farakka Barrage. The victim went out on the evening of January 8 and never returned. On January 9, the family lodged a police complaint. "Based on preliminary investigations, we discovered that...

"Jaiswal Has Run Ahead Of Gill": Ex-India Star's Massive T20 WC Verdict

Former India opener Aakash Chopra has suggested that Yashasvi Jaiswal is slightly ahead of Shubman Gill in the pecking order as captain Rohit Sharma's partner at the top in T20Is. Since making his debut last year, Jaiswal has been in stunning form in the shortest format of the game. Gill's form, on the other hand, has dipped since the ODI World Cup last year in India. With the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held later this year, Chopra feels Jaiswal will open the innings with Rohit during the tournament. "It's clear that Yashasvi Jaiswal has run ahead of Shubman Gill. Yashasvi is ahead in the two-horse race, Gill is lagging slightly behind. Gill was played in the first match, dropped in the second, and wasn't played in the third as well," Chopra said on his YouTube channel. Jaiswal helped India beat Afghanistan in the second T20I earlier this week, scoring a quickfire fifty. Considering his recent form across formats, Chopra emphasised that Jaiswal has ...