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Comment by FireBeyond | Hacker News Reader

Given that this is the numbers and methodology that Twitter has used for many years in SEC filings, Musk is implying that Twitter has been deceptive to its own investors and to the SEC for years. This isn't impossible, but it might require a little more than a page or two of vague accusations.

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This is absolutely pure speculation, but perhaps that is Musk's motive for this whole charade. He is erratic enough that it certainly seems possible that he did this whole acquisition agreement with no intention of following through simply to unveil information to discredit Twitter. It certainly doesn't appear from the outside that Musk had any ideas for making money on this by materially improving Twitter as a business from anything I've read. The justifications about free speech seem to taint this deal with Musk having an ideological bent to the whole transaction, so it seems possible that he thought he could use the buyout to access damaging information (like potentially lying on SEC filings) and then back out without spending the full amount.

Honestly, waiving due-diligence is so sketchy that it has made me wonder from the start what his true endgame was. If he did want to buy the company, what did he gain by waiving his due-diligence rights?

bingo. if you want to assume bad faith why not go whole hog - Musk never intended to buy Twitter because he never believed they have what they claim to have, it's all a big scam involving inauthentic accounts and now the world knows it too

it probably couldn't technically be due diligence without the lawyers deadlocking on how to prove the authenticity of a twitter account

So, what, he spent several billion dollars on ten percent of Twitter as part of his plan to tank the company?

Which will obviously not even tank the company because clearly everyone sees what the product is and they see what the ad output is (pretty abysmal). So the big reveal is… nothing revelatory.

This theory doesn’t really make sense and is really covering for Musk’s incompetence or a deeper nefariousness: he needed a very public excuse to offload $8B of his TSLA stock without spooking the market, and he’s happy to pay a $1B+ fee to have been able to do that

It's been stated multiple times in this thread that he can't walk away just by paying $1B.

If he wanted to only offload $8B TSLA stock and not buy the company, why put that possibility way more out of reach by waiving due dilligence and accepting the special performance clause?

Are we also to assume that he has managed to assemble the most abjectly incompetent team of lawyers in the world as well?

If I want to buy a house, I can make my offer more compelling by raising the bid, by waiving inspections, or by waiving a finance contingency.

I suppose it's something that would be extensively argued in court if Twiiter decides to sue.

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