After months of silence, Elon Musk, who has owned Twitter since October 2022, has finally admitted why he ended up buying the company even though he canceled the first offer. In an interview via Twitter Space (via TechCrunch) with James Clayton, reporter for the BBCthe tycoon has confessed that he continued with his proposal to acquire the social network because he thought that the court would force him to do so.
Elon Musk, let’s remember, backtracked on its initial intention to buy Twitter for $44 billion when verifying that the company, at that time directed by Parag Agrawal, was not providing him with all the necessary information to be able to independently evaluate the presence of fake accounts on the platform. All this, in addition, despite the fact that Twitter accepted the tycoon’s proposal, for which the company decided to take the matter to court.
Months later, and already during the trial, Musk confirmed that he was again interested in acquiring Twitter while maintaining the initial conditions. A decision that, presumably, would be conditioned by the high probability that Twitter would win the trial. In fact, this was stated by Elon Musk during the interview.
“I had to do it”, Elon Musk confesses that he bought Twitter because he believed that the court would force him
“So, you changed your mind again and decided to buy it. [Twitter] because you had to. Did you do that?” Clayton asked Musk. “Well, I had to,” replied the tycoon. Elon Musk confesses that he, in effect, completed the purchase because the court would force him to do so after a second, clearer question from Clayton. “Well, you did it because you thought a court would force you to do it?”, highlights the BBC reporter. “Yeah. That’s why,” Musk replies.
Elon Musk has also confirmed that he tried to prevent the purchase of Twitter, but was advised against it by his lawyers. “So you were still interested in getting out of it and then your lawyers advised you, look, you’re going to buy this?” Clayton asks. “Yes,” Musk replies.
Musk’s confessions are actually an open secret, because when he announced that he was interested in acquiring Twitter again, he hardly changed the initial conditions. The purchase, we reiterate, was completed in October 2020, and since then the tycoon has made important —and highly controversial— changes. Among them, the possibility of obtaining verification by paying a subscription to Twitter Blue.