Tag: Elon Musk Twitter acquisition

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Elon Musk’s actions putting Twitter at risk for FTC fines, internal letter reveals

Apparently, Elon Musk “is not afraid of the FTC.”

That’s according to words allegedly spoken by Alex Spiro, who, according to an internal letter, is Twitter’s current head of legal. He’s also Musk’s close confidant.

The message, partially posted by The Verge, was shared on the company’s Slack by an attorney on the privacy team.

The message references Twitter’s settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on privacy issues, which raises concerns given Musk’s priority to monetize the platform’s users. Failing to comply will lead to billions in penalties for the company. “The FTC takes order enforcement seriously and will use every lawful means to hold recidivists responsible for further violations,” the regulatory body states in its report on the matter.

But that’s not an issue for Musk, according to Spiro’s alleged statement.

“I have heard Alex Spiro (current head of Legal) say that Elon is willing to take on a huge amount of risk in relation to this company and its users, because ‘Elon puts rockets into space, he’s not afraid of the FTC,’” the message states.

The letter states that engineers could be responsible for ensuring compliance with the FTC requirement, amounting to “personal, professional and legal risk onto engineers.”

The message comes after chief privacy officer Damien Kieran, chief information security officer Lea Kissner, and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty left the company.

The message is the latest issue after Musk acquired Twitter two weeks ago.

You can read more about all the drama here.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: The Verge 

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Elon Musk reportedly ready to acquire Twitter for original $44 billion price

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is reportedly reviving his original Twitter buyout offer, proposing to acquire the company for $54.20 USD (about $73.26 CAD) per share, in a deal valued at $44 billion USD (roughly $59.5 billion CAD), as reported by Bloomberg.

According to unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Musk reportedly made the proposal in a letter to Twitter.

A brief timeline of how we got here

Musk had initially backed out of the Twitter deal quoting concerns over the platform’s bot count. During the time, Musk’s legal representatives sent a letter to the SEC, saying that “For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to ‘make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform…Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information.” According to Twitter, roughly five percent of its active users are bots, whereas Musk argues that the actual number is much higher.

Quoting said concerns, Musk wanted out of the Twitter deal. Subsequently, Twitter sued Musk, alleging his spam bot complaint was manufactured to get out of the deal. Fast forward to now and the Twitter vs. Elon Musk trial is set to begin on October 17th and will conclude on the 21st in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. That is, if the news about Musk agreeing to buy out Twitter for $44 billion USD (roughly $59.5 billion CAD) turns out to be false.

Twitter’s stock jumped roughly 16 percent since the news of Musk agreeing to acquire Twitter came out earlier today.

Source: Bloomberg

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Twitter aims to take Elon Musk to court amid acquisition fallout

After Elon Musk attempted to terminate the $44 billion-valued Twitter acquisition deal on Friday, July 8th, the San Francisco, California-based social media company seems to have lawyered up.

As reported by The Verge, Twitter has hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, with one of its founders, Martin Lipton, credited as the inventor of the shareholder rights plan or the “Poison Pill,” a tactic that Twitter deployed earlier this year to block Musk’s initial buyout offer.

Following Musk’s remarks on Friday, Twitter chairman Bret Taylor released a statement on Twitter saying that the company “plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

Following Taylor’s comment, Musk being the meme lord he is, posted a meme about the current debacle, implying that the reason he withdrew his offer was that Twitter wouldn’t disclose how many users on its platform are bots and that the platform would now have to do so in court.

“For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform,” reads Musk’s legal team’s letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Musk’s legal team, the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan law firm, has defended the billionaire in the past, specifically in his “pedo guy” defamation lawsuit, and has also defended Samsung in its Apple patent lawsuit, according to The Verge.

Via: The Verge

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Elon Musk might temporarily serve as Twitter CEO post acquisition

Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal might be in danger of losing his job, at least temporarily.

According to a CNBC News report, after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition officially goes through, he’ll become the social media platform’s temporary CEO. The information comes from an unnamed source that is familiar with the matter, said CNBC News.

For those who don’t know, Agrawal was named CEO of Twitter in November of last year, when former CEO Jack Dorsey announced his resignation. Just over six months in, he is already in danger of losing his position. The report also suggests that Musk is in talks with Dorsey about him making a comeback.

On the other hand, a Reuters report from last week suggests that Musk has a new CEO lined up to take over Twitter.

While there’s a lot of uncertainty about the takeover, and no statements from Agrawal yet, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who also is a major investor in Twitter, believes that Musk will be an “excellent leader” for the social media platform. Considering Musk’s experience running other companies, there’s a possibility the prince might be right.

On the contrary, Musk’s yet-to-complete takeover has already frustrated some, so much so that people are leaving the social media platform. Since the news about Musk’s acquisition came out, popular left-wing figures have experienced a relentless drop in followers, including former President Barack Obama, the most followed user on Twitter, who has lost more than 300,000 followers in the recent week. If Musk was to take on the role of CEO, I would imagine that more people would leave the platform.

In other Twitter and Musk-related news, the world’s richest man reportedly plans to cut jobs and costs once the acquisition of Twitter is complete.