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

By Aidan Walker
2133 views
• Published 2 years ago

Published 2 years ago

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.


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.


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.


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.


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


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


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.


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.

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