Speaker 1: Elon Musk hasn't shied away from making headlines over the last few months or ever, really, as he works out his deal to buy Twitter. Well, kind of. He wanted to buy it then he didn't. Then he wanted to, Again, look, it's this whole thing. I'm a bar heti and I'm gonna break it all down for you. Speaker 1: So how did this whole mess begin? Let's take it back to March 14th at 2022 when Musk took a 9.2% [00:00:30] stake in Twitter that made him the social network's biggest shareholder. The public found out about the deal in early April. Then the next day we learned Musk was joining Twitter's board of directors. He began tweeting about all the things that he changed at the company in early April. For example, he pulled his users about whether they wanted an edit button. Twitter quickly announced it was working on this feature already. Musk tweeted some other suggestions that caught people's attention. He asked if Twitter's headquarters should be turned into a [00:01:00] homeless shelter because quote, no one shows up Anyway, he eventually deleted that tweet on April 9th. He fan the flames by asking, Is Twitter dying? But things got really interesting. On April 10th when Twitter ceo, Paraag Agrawal said, Musk wasn't joining the company's board. Speaker 1: After all Aggarwal shared in a tweet quote, Elon's appointment to the board was to become officially effective April 9th. But Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. Some speculated this could [00:01:30] mean Musk was actually looking to buy the company. See, as part of his agreement to join Twitter's board, Musk pledge to cap any investment in Twitter at 14.9% while serving a two year term. But now that the agreement had been scrapped, he was free to keep adding to his stake, and that turned out to be true. On April 25th, Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Taking it private. Twitter's board of directors unanimously approved the deal in late April, and in June [00:02:00] recommended shareholders also approved the sale. And a letter to investors included in the SCC filing. The board said it, quote, determined that the merger agreement is advisable, but there was drama brewing. Speaker 1: In May, the deal was put on hold. Musk threatened to back out if Twitter couldn't prove that less than 5% of accounts on its platform were bots. He accused the company of actively resisting and thwarting his right to information about the number of bots on the site. But if Musk walked [00:02:30] away from the deal, he'd have to pay a $1 billion fine. So some people speculated he was just looking for a way out or an excuse to renegotiate the price. Then officially on July 8th, Musk said he was pulling out of the deal and a letter sent by his lawyer. Musk said, Twitter breached multiple parts of the merger agreement by failing to provide more information about how it estimates the number of spam accounts. The letter said, quote, This information is fundamental to Twitter's business and [00:03:00] financial performance. I made another video on why Musk is so concerned about bots. Speaker 1: If you wanna check that out, Twitter sued Musk on July 12th to complete his $44 billion purchase. It accused him of breaching the agreement and called his exit strategy a quote model of hypocrisy the company alleged. The billionaire is trying to pull out of the deal because his personal wealth has fallen, so the acquisition has become more expensive for him. More specifically, the lawsuit notes must stake in his company. Tesla [00:03:30] declined by more than $100 billion from its peak in November, 2021, and that's why he wants to back out of the Twitter deal. The complaint said, Musk apparently believes that he, unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law, is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away. Twitter clearly doesn't mince its words. Then things got even more intense. In August when a whistleblower complaint [00:04:00] alleged Twitter lied to Musk about the number of spambots on its platform. Speaker 1: It also accused the company of prioritizing making money over user security. Twitter pushed back against the allegations saying it was quote riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context. Still, Musk's lawyers tried using the whistleblower complaint as part of his argument for ending the deal, but the tides turned once again on October 3rd when Musk's lawyers sent a letter to Twitter stating he [00:04:30] plans to move forward with purchasing the company at the original offer price of $54 and 20 cents a share. The timing of this was interesting since it came just days before a trial between Musk and Twitter was set to begin on October 17th, Reports said Musk's lawyers sense the case wasn't going well based on what happened in pretrial hearings. Also, getting out of a merger agreement is tough and the legal bar to do so is high. Some analysts said, Musk's, chances of winning seemed highly [00:05:00] unlikely. Speaker 1: Twitter says closing the deal is in the best interest of shareholders, and it plans to do so. At the agreed price. On October 6th, the judge overseeing the Twitter Musk case granted Musk's request to stop legal proceedings. The trial was put on pause to give the two parties time to complete the deal by October 28th. If they don't, then a trial out will take place in November. Goodness, that was a lot. Now, not surprisingly, all this back and forth has led to uncertainty about Twitter's future. People have [00:05:30] mixed feelings about Musk. He has his fans, and then there are the people who aren't so crazy about him. There have been reports about employees at Twitter feeling uneasy about a Musk takeover. People also have mixed feelings about some of the changes he's proposed for Twitter. One of the biggest issues he's discussed is changing the company's content moderation policies and curbing restrictions on what people can say. But Twitter employees and advocacy groups have raised concerns that those changes would harm users dealing with [00:06:00] harassment and hate speech on the platform. If the deal goes through, we'll see if and how Musk implements his ideal policies and how people react. But in the meantime, knowing Musk, there will be plenty more ups and downs and inflammatory tweets as the saga continues and we'll be watching it all with bated breath. If you like this video, don't forget to hit like and subscribe for more content from cnet. Thanks for watching.