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Elon Musk touted the 'incredible potential' of Twitter after spending millions in legal fees to avoid buying it

Oct 20, 2022, 06:07 IST
Business Insider
Elon Musk.Andrew Kelly/Reuters
  • Elon Musk said he is "excited about the Twitter situation" on Tesla's earnings call.
  • Musk spent months and millions of dollars trying to walk away from his deal to buy Twitter before agreeing to go through with the purchase.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent a fortune and many months trying to walk away from his deal to buy Twitter. Now he's optimistic about the purchase.

"I'm excited about the Twitter situation, because obviously I know their product very well," Musk said on Tesla's earnings call on Wednesday. "I think it's an asset that has sort of languished for a long time but has incredible potential."

Musk, the world's richest person, offered to take the social network private in April at a valuation of $44 billion. Twitter resisted before accepting the offer and urging shareholders approve the deal.

Then in July, Musk said he was canceling the deal — mainly due to a dispute over the number of spam and fake accounts on Twitter's platform. Twitter sued to force Musk to follow through.

Following a tumultuous several months — and an estimated $100 million in personal legal fees — Musk again offered to buy Twitter for his original asking price earlier this month. The deal is set to close by October 28. After criticizing Twitter and its leadership at length both in court filings and on the platform itself, Musk has made an abrupt U-turn.

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"Although obviously myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now, the long-term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value," Musk said on Wednesday.

Musk and a group of investors will pay $54.20 per share for Twitter. Shares closed on Wednesday at $51.83; they were trading below $43 in early October before Musk said he would complete the deal.

The Tesla CEO recently tweeted that his acquisition will be an "accelerant to creating X, the everything app."

Musk will add the social-media network to a plate piled high with other ventures: Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company.

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