The last laugh

To Elon Musk, buying – or not buying – Twitter is quite humorous. 
What’s the humor? Musk disclosed late Friday he was pulling out of his agreement to buy the social media platform, citing a lack of information about the number of Twitter users made up of bots. His lawyer said that placed Twitter “in material breach of multiple provisions” of the original agreement. Twitter responded by saying it would “pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.” 

Lol! Didn’t they initially reject his bid?

Early Monday, Musk tweeted four images of himself laughing next to captions that read: “They said I couldn’t buy Twitter. Then they wouldn’t disclose bot information. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose bot information in court.” That was followed by a picture of actor Chuck Norris playing chess with a single pawn on his side of the board, a complete set of pieces on the other side, and Musk tweeting, “Chuckmate.” 

But why does Twitter want to force the sale now? 

The best explanation would be the financial impact of the whole thing on the company. While Musk’s original investment in the company boosted its shares, his subsequent purchase bid and the drama that followed have dealt a significant blow. Twitter investors aren’t laughing. Shares of Twitter stock were down 5% in pre-market trading Monday; they were already well off April’s agreed-upon $54.20-a-share purchase price, closing Friday at $36.81.