The world's richest man was widely ridiculed on Friday after he attempted to end his attempt to take over Twitter.
"Elon Musk is terminating his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, according to a filing the billionaire made with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday," The Washington Post reported. "But legal experts say Musk can’t just walk away from the deal. His April agreement to buy the company included a commitment to go through with the acquisition unless there’s a major change to the business, and legal experts say nothing has happened to meet that threshold."
The situation immediately generated a great deal of commentary on the social networking platform.
"Billionaire puts money first, and it was never actually about 'free speech.' Who could have seen this coming?" asked MSNBC chief legal correspondent Ari Melber.
Attorney Dean Obeidallah wrote, "That sobbing is all the white supremacists, Neo-Nazis and other bigots who were counting on Elon to let them back on so they could help their beloved Donald Trump. Bye Bye Nazis!"
But Bret Taylor, the chairman of Twitter's board of directors, says the company will stick to the deal struck with Musk.
"The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery," he wrote.
Here's what others were saying:
\u201cElon Musk lost $70 billion this year. The market tanked, his sexual misconduct cost him billions, and he had to sell 10 million shares in his company to afford Twitter.\n\nNow Twitter is going to take him to court for reneging on the deal and will take even more.\u201d— Sawyer Hackett (@Sawyer Hackett) 1657317201
\u201cEveryone is going to dunk on Musk for pulling out. But can't think of a worse outcome for Twitter than him showing the world how hypocritical they are and they didn't even get the payoff.\u201d— Rod (@Rod) 1657316228
\u201cliterally the funniest thing in the history of corporate law would be twitter suing elon musk and winning and making him buy it at the originally agreed to price\u201d— Matthew Zeitlin (@Matthew Zeitlin) 1657315716
\u201cNew from me and @rjwile:\n\n'I guess it feels like we won': Elon Musk says he is backing out of deal to buy Twitter\n\nIncluding this incredible quote from a Twitter employee:\n\nhttps://t.co/qSX3H6pYHU\u201d— Ben Collins (@Ben Collins) 1657317786
\u201cElon Musk is backing out of the Twitter deal. He'll now have more time for his other interests.\u201d— John Whitehouse+ (@John Whitehouse+) 1657316719
\u201cPredictable\n\n1. Musk secures financing to buy Twitter (including margin loan against Tesla stock\u2014terms for payback if stock drops)\n2. Twitter accepts\n3. Tesla tanks, Musk gets cold feet\n4. Musk seeks more outside $\n5. Musk puts deal on hold, uses bots as excuse\n6. Musk pulls out\u201d— Ahmed Baba (@Ahmed Baba) 1657316410
\u201c(\u2022_\u2022)\n<) )\u256fTwitter says \n / \ \n\n (\u2022_\u2022)\n \( (> it will sue Elon Musk\n / \\n\n (\u2022_\u2022)\n<) )\u256fand is "confident" it will prevail\n / \\u201d— David Mack (@David Mack) 1657317579
\u201cWho ever saw this coming? \nOh, wait. Everybody. https://t.co/35Hy1m6dAn\u201d— Joe Scarborough (@Joe Scarborough) 1657316202
\u201cTwitter should shut down Musk's account while this goes through the endless court processes, right?\u201d— Schooley (@Schooley) 1657315584
\u201cIf the only thing Elon Musk ever pulls out of is Twitter, the world will be repopulated in record time.\u201d— VANESSA (@VANESSA) 1657316840
\u201cA federal law to ban additional \u201cpull out\u201d tweets re Elon Musk and the twitter deal.\u201d— Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18) 1657317584
\u201cMore importantly: Where is the SEC? This will set a precedent for a long time if it works.\u201d— Kara Swisher (@Kara Swisher) 1657317337
\u201cTurns out that Elon Musk stopped Elon Musk from "liberating twitter"\u201d— Matt Stoller (@Matt Stoller) 1657317011
\u201cBREAKING: Elon Musk is officially terminating his purchase of Twitter, to the surprise of no-one who\u2019s been paying attention.\n\nHe got what he wanted. #ElonMusk #narcissism\u201d— Brent Toderian (@Brent Toderian) 1657316220
\u201cI feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of emotionally stunted manchildren suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. https://t.co/F6sSWPHbHr\u201d— Adam Rawnsley (@Adam Rawnsley) 1657316605
\u201cIn a surprise to no one, Elon Musk is pulling out of his deal to buy Twitter. https://t.co/1ivKxPB0Ri\u201d— Keith Boykin (@Keith Boykin) 1657316225
\u201cIt\u2019s a funny early 90s sitcom: rich dude forced to buy company he no longer wants to own!\u201d— Ben Dreyfuss (@Ben Dreyfuss) 1657315989
\u201cAfter hours believes Musk will prevail\u201d— Alex Kantrowitz (@Alex Kantrowitz) 1657317770
\u201cFox News' first reaction to Elon Musk pulling out of his agreement to buy Twitter.\n\nGreg Gutfeld: "If he buys Twitter, he wins, but if he doesn\u2019t buy it, he still won."\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1657316855
