Photo: rafapress (Shutterstock)
The events surrounding the purchase of Twitter are getting more and more complicated and it looks like at the end of this adventure, neither Tesla CEO Elon Musk nor the Twitter board will be unharmed.
The Securities and Exchange Commission revealed on Friday that it has long been investigating whether Musk had properly communicated his intentions with Twitter. The agency’s regulatory documents included a letter sent to Musk on April 4 asking for clarification on multiple discrepancies found in Musk’s original share purchases. The letter said Musk did not disclose his involvement at the right time.
In addition, the agency wonders if Musk was right to buy the shares as a mere passive investor if he initially planned to buy the company. The letter notes that the world’s richest billionaire had been constantly tweeting about whether Twitter was adhering to its own definition of “free speech” before announcing its original share purchase.
Keep in mind that this latest revelation comes just weeks after it came to light that the SEC was investigating Musk for an inappropriate moment of his original Twitter stock purchases. The agency requires that those who buy more than 5% of a company’s shares disclose this information within 10 days. Musk bought 9.2% of the company in March, but did not report that it had exceeded the 5% threshold by April 4.
That letter reached Musk just 10 days before Musk wanted the doors to Twitter headquarters with his $ 44 billion proposal to buy the company at $ 54.20 a share. So far, neither the SEC nor Musk have spoken out about this ongoing dispute. The CEO of SpaceX is not a friend of the SEC, and has previously been in charge of the inappropriate way he announced his plans to take Tesla privately in 2018. $ 40 million later, Musk had to post any tweet that they were dealing with the purchase of shares later lawyer before posting.
G / O Media may receive a commission
Save $ 70
Apple AirPods Max
Experience first-rate SoundSpatial audio with dynamic head tracking that delivers a theater-like sound to your surroundings
At the same time, there have been even more changes to the Twitter dashboard. Board members on Wednesday blocked the re-election of fellow and Musk ally Egon Durban to the board. But after Durban filed a resignation letter, the board decided to reject his resignation request, according to Reuters.
What the hell is going on here? Well, board members complained that Durban had too many commitments to other boards, six in all. Durban has now promised to go from six seats on the board to five on May 25 next year. As co-CEO of venture capital firm Silver Lake Partners, Durban had originally partnered with Musk to take Tesla privately, according to a separate Reuters article. It was also crucial to gather Musk’s Twitter purchase, according to the original purchase documents.
So it seems that more of the board seems to be in the best of the lukewarm compared to Musk’s allies in his inner circle. At that same board meeting on Wednesday, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s original CEO and ally of Musk, finally announced that he would leave the board. It also came after former Twitter board member Jason Goldman claimed that Bloomberg Dorsey had “stabbed in the back” his fellow board members by encouraging Musk to buy the company before any of the other members heard intentions of the CEO of Tesla.
On Wednesday, Musk raised $ 6.25 more in funding and also pledged $ 6.8 billion more from his own funds to buy the company. However, some analysts suspect that Musk is getting cold. He complained that Twitter did not give him all the information about the situation of the bot on the platform and said that his agreement was “pending”, although this is not how it really works. Its Tesla shares, which it should use to make the final purchase, have fallen in value. Still, Twitter keeps its promise to Musk, and Twitter shareholders announced Friday that they are suing the Tesla CEO to make sure the promised deal goes ahead.