Is Elon Musk Backing Out Of Buying Twitter, Or Is He Just Manipulating The Stock Price? Memers Debate

Elon Musk tweeted early this morning that his purchase of Twitter is on a temporary hold until he can verify that fewer than five percent of accounts on the platform are spam or bot accounts, adding another chapter in the lengthy meme saga that is his bid to purchase the social media platform.

Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022

Musk cited the supposed prevalence of bots on the platform as a reason for purchasing it in the first place, pledging to solve that problem. A Twitter disclosure from May 2nd provided the “less than 5 percent” figure that Musk wants to verify is true. Some users online took the opportunity to speculate about why that specific problem seems to have thrown a wrench in the works.

Elon musk didn’t see an article from 11 days ago so now he’s putting his twitter deal “on hold.” pic.twitter.com/UqrsiqseZd

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) May 13, 2022

Me running accounts for fictional people like Squirrel Girl might be partially responsible for Elon Musk walking away from the Twitter deal and having to pay a billion dollars in fees for that. You're welcome https://t.co/Aa8SwFGKNb

— Ryan North, supervillain consultant (@ryanqnorth) May 13, 2022

So Elon Musk is now claiming he is pausing his acquisition of Twitter because of “bots” which is the thing he claimed he wanted to fix? I am glad he likely won’t acquire Twitter now but this whole ordeal is disturbing, reeks of market manipulation, and wreaks havoc on markets.

— Ben Meiselas (@meiselasb) May 13, 2022

There seemed to be two main theories about how to interpret Elon Musk's behavior. The first was that he is trying to back out of buying Twitter and looking for an excuse to do so. Perhaps in response to this speculation, Musk tweeted a few hours later that he still wanted to acquire Twitter.

Still committed to acquisition

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022

The second theory is that Musk wants to drive down the stock price of Twitter, making it easier for him to afford the company. His tweets this morning caused the company’s stock price to slump.

Despite being the world’s richest man, coming up with the $44 billion to buy Twitter is not easy for Musk, as much of his wealth is in Tesla stonks, which he needs to sell or use as collateral for loans (possibly causing complications with that company). In addition to leveraging his Tesla stock, he needs outside investors (so far, Musk has recruited the Bitcoin-trading platform Binance, the controversial Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia and conservative tech billionaire Larry Ellison, among others). Many believe that Musk, whose Twitter purchase is now under investigation by the SEC, is finding it difficult to secure the bag and the stock market overall seems to doubt he will actually follow through with buying Twitter.

Currently, the oligarch is deep enough into the process of buying Twitter that if he backs out now, he will have to pay a $1 billion termination fee to the company — not to mention the likely substantial hit to his social media clout.

Musk has made his bid to purchase Twitter a public spectacle and brought the media and fans along every step of the way, and it's clear the stakes are not just financial for him. Musk has made clear in public statements that his reasons for buying Twitter are not economic, but personal and ideological.

pic.twitter.com/3ArDuAMDmZ

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) May 13, 2022

Some took the opportunity to mock Musk for his extreme wealth and trollish social media behavior.

Elon Musk announced this morning that his purchase of Twitter is "temporarily on hold", as opposed to his payment of taxes, which is permanently on hold.

— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️‍⚧️🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) May 13, 2022

The hashtag "#elonsproblems" trended this morning as users mocked Musk and his issues.

Starting Tesla – $2 Billion
Starting SpaceX – $1.5 Billion
Buying Twitter – $44 Billion
Not knowing that Viagra solves the same problem – priceless

#ElonsProblems

— herotimeszero (@herotimeszero) May 13, 2022

Elon’s mistake was trying to buy his way to permanent public attention and importance by purchasing a company he can’t afford, has no interest in nor clue how to actually improve, and alienating the only demographic who has ever bought his shitty cars.#ElonsProblems pic.twitter.com/vmxphjaytq

— Andrew Wortman 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@AmoneyResists) May 13, 2022

Others continued memeing about the relationship between Musk and former President Donald Trump, who Musk promised to reinstate on Twitter. Musk’s other investors – such as Larry Ellison, Prince Alwaleed, and the government of Qatar – are notably friendly with Trump.

Elon is in love with Trump pic.twitter.com/PoBarsAL7y

— Do The Right Thing Ⓥ 🌻🇺🇦 (@VeganImpi) May 13, 2022

Elon restoring Trump’s Twitter account.pic.twitter.com/JdUrcFHCQy

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) May 12, 2022

But while Twitter’s future may be uncertain, at least one thing about the platform is certain: It thrives on wild speculation and endless arguments.