Twitter Busted, Bot Stuff a Distraction: Diverse Reactions on Musk Exiting Deal

Elon Musk terminated his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter.

File image of Elon Musk.

(Photo: The Quint)

As American Billionaire Elon Musk on Friday, 8 July, backed out of his deal to buy Twitter, the same social media platform was flooded with a diverse array of reactions.

While some (such as former US President and Twitter pariah Donald Trump's son) celebrated the decision as the microblogging site getting "busted" for spam accounts...

...free speech activist Nathan Bernard said it was a shattering of "sycophants dreams."

Yet others, like the President of Media Matters for America, called the Musk's stated reason for pull out "a bit of a distraction."

And others went on to suggest that a lower purchase price will potentially be negotiated.

But What Do Twitter Shareholders, Employees Have to Say?

While litigator and Twitter shareholder Richard Signorelli said he hopes Musk pays a heavy penalty and gets out of the deal...

...here's how Twitter employees reacted:

Background

Musk terminated his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, accusing the tech company of making "false and misleading representations" about the prevalence of fake accounts on its platform.

"Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement," Musk's lawyers said in a regulatory filing.

Musk and his financial advisors have been requesting critical information from Twitter as far back as 9 May and repeatedly since then, the filing stated.

Responding to the withdrawal, Twitter's Chairperson Bret Taylor said the board will pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement, and that they were confident of prevailing.