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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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Musk tried to back out, allegedly because of new information about bots. Of course, his own financial valuation and/or mental state may have changed, too. This was very upsetting to anyone who lost money when his public statements pushed the price around. It was also offensive to the state of Delaware, which let Twitter take Musk to court.

He was going to pay for Twitter by selling/borrowing against Tesla stock. After he made the offer there was a market downturn. Both Twitter and Tesla stock were trading lower, however, the price he would pay for Twitter was locked in beforehand at a higher price. So, to complete the deal, he would both have to overpay for Twitter and sell a greater share of his Tesla stake to complete the deal: a double whammy to his personal balance sheet.

At the minimum he alleged the bs about bots and go to court to try to renegotiate the deal, but the judge seemed pretty unsympathetic so he decided to skip the risks of being deposed and ruled against and closed after all.