Elon Musk has to hand over information about potential investors in the forty four billion dollar buyout of Twitter that he's now trying to cancel. Joining us to talk about this more. Jeff Feeley, Bloomberg Legal reporter, So, Jeff, this is the latest twist in this long running saga. Now, what is the significance of this and who are these
potential investors we're talking about, Paul. These guys are folks that are friends or colleagues of Mr Musk who have discussed potentially throwing in with him in there set more than seven billion dollar equity race he did for the Twitter deal. Uh, these folks names. He's resisted turning over these names, saying that they don't have any real substitutive knowledge of the deal. But the judge says he's got
to hand him over anyway. That's one interesting angle. And then this whistleblower complaint from a former executive, Peter z Co is interesting too about deficient deficiencies. And we saw a big drop in the in the share price down seven point three percent in Twitter today. That's a long way from the fifty four dollars that Elon Musk originally was was offering to pay. Does this make it more likely that Musk gets a gets more favorable treatment from
the judge. Well, it's too early to tell. We really don't know at this point whether this gentleman has the goods or it's just a case of sour grapes. He was fired by Twitter over performance issues. Uh, we really just it's going to take time to flesh this out. So I think everybody needs to stay tuned. One of the people that is getting sucked into this voltics as well, Jack Dorsey, has been subpoenaed. Of course, he's a friend of Elon Musk. He's a form of Twitter CEO as well.
That might there be some split loyalties here for Jack Dorsey. What's he likely to say? I don't think there is. I think Jack Dorsey is one of the folks in this case who would likely be subpoenaed by both sides to testify. He is basically one of the folks who uh served as an advisor for Mr Musk when he
was considering whether to make the bid for Twitter. It's pretty clear that Mr Musk would have preferred Mr Dorsey stay on the board and served sort of as his his proxy, his voice but that wasn't to be Mr. Mr Dorsey has sort of moved on, so we're likely
to hear from Mr Dorsey at trial in October. I wanted to go back to the whistle blower because apparently it's serious enough that lawmakers have have vowed to investigate, and even in our talking about national security implications in terms of what this gentleman, the former executive, has said, how subjective are some of the charges. Well, I mean, again, it depends on which side of the hour you're standing on.
For were the Twitter side they've said that basically, you know, there's plenty of inconsistencies and inaccuracies in what he has said that he has motivated, you know, by a desire to hurt the company. On the Musk side, you know, this guy is the former head of security for Twitter computer security, so not a small job, especially for a social media platform. And you know, I mean, it's really going to come down to how this plays with the judge.
This is all a judge in Delaware is going to make the final call on whether Mr Musk was justified in walking away or not. Well, that trial now a little under two months away. What are the chances that it gets sailed in advance and we never make it to court. There's some talk about that. You know, there's the question as to whether Twitter really wants to have Elon Musk, you know, as its owner in the endgame. Uh. Mr Musk has made it clear that he really is
not not all that interested. He's got buyer's remorse. I could see a settlement. It's it's Uh, it's certainly in both sides interests and j Jeff, is it Do we know for sure that he wants out? It seems like it, But it could be that a much lower price, um, you know, has been the motivating motivating factor all along. Uh, you know, what can you tell us on that front? Does anyone really have any insight into the mind of
Elon Musk? Uh, It's it's you know, it's just hard to tell whether this has all been negotiation by lawsuit or he really wants to put on his shoes and make the move again. Only the future will tell us that. You know, Jeff, from your from your commentary and from your approach, it seems like you're a bit fed up with this. I mean, is this a confusing and and sort of frustrating story to cover? It's a very interesting
story to cover. It's one of the things that we do a lot in Delaware, a lot of m and a litigation in Delaware. But he's killing my summer, you know what I mean? You know anyway, now now I I you know, I love it. But again he's skill in my summer. One of the things he's complaining about Elon Muska is being hounded about casual conversations that he had about this Twitter deal. But he does say all kinds of things as you mentioned there, you know, for example,
taking tessela private buying Manchester United. These these two seem to be like trial balloons and thought bubbles a lot of the time. So populating the world with all his children guy, now there you go. So what kind of right to these sorts of casual remarks carry in a corporom? Well, again, you just don't know what is going to be the
key thing that rings with the judge. The key question here is whether or not the Twitter folks were accurate and robust and what they told Mr Musk and the rest of the world about these bots, the spam and robot accounts that are part of their their customer base. If they were you know if they were accurate and they were complete and telling people about that, they have no trouble. Mr Musk is a big boys, the richest man in the world, and he knows what a contract means.
But if in fact the Twitter folks haven't any way been concealing the number of these accounts to pump up the revenue numbers to be a problem, all right, Jeff, thank you. Jeff Peely, Bloomberg Legal reporter,