By
Temitope Olatunji
April 12th, 2024
While there still remain many intricacies attached to the acquisition deal, Twitter will be satisfied with an outcome if Musk pays the agreed $44 billion.
American social media company Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) published a new court filing on Thursday which shows its prospective buyer, Elon Musk is under Federal investigation. As reported by Aljazeera, the social media firm did not reveal which Federal agency is conducting the investigation, or what the focus of the probe is.
One thing that is glaring, however, is that the probe is connected to the way Elon Musk handled the acquisition process of the social media company. When the news about the potential acquisition of the company for $44 billion made the rounds earlier in the year, many were intrigued and stayed aligned with the promises of free speech that the vocal billionaire entrepreneur promised will be the new focal point for Twitter.
With stalling release of key data from Twitter including the number of bots and fake accounts, Elon Musk pulled the plug on the deal, stirring a lawsuit from the executive management of the social media company.
Based on the trend surrounding the case, Twitter said in its filing that Elon Musk’s lawyers had cited “Investigative Privilege,” highlighting documents they do not plan to release in the course of the trial. The “privilege log” referenced drafts of emails sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as a slide presentation sent to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The presiding judge Kathaleen McCormack had been asked by Twitter to compel Elon Musk to release the documents, however, the case was halted on October 6th when the Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO said he will proceed with the acquisition. Elon Musk was given until October 28 to close the deal, otherwise, a trial date, which is likely to be in November will be set.
Twitter and Elon Musk Pursuing a Happy Ending
The turn of events between Elon Musk and the management of Twitter which had approved the acquisition push long ago was an unpleasant one and all sides are exploring avenues to make the situation end happily for them.
While there still remain many intricacies attached to the acquisition deal, Twitter will be satisfied with an outcome that means Musk will pay the agreed $44 billion. For Musk, less trouble on the legal side, and the easy accumulation of the funds needed to complete the deal.
The billionaire has gotten support from a number of companies across different industry verticals including Sequoia Capital and Binance. Additionally, Musk has become quite creative in his bid to raise the capital to finance the Twitter acquisition deal. This week, Musk revealed he has launched a new perfume brand called “Burnt Hair” which he hopes to use to raise funds to support his acquisition bid.
“Please buy my perfume, so I can buy Twitter,” Musk wrote on Twitter where he claimed to have sold 20,000 bottles of the scent. “With a name like mine, getting into the fragrance business was inevitable – why did I even fight it for so long!?”
Can’t wait for media stories tomorrow about $1M of Burnt Hair sold 🤣
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 12, 2022
The perfume brand which now contains a link in its bio has sold over $1 million in the first few days of launch and shipping is slated for the first quarter of 2023.