WHEN news broke that
While the
In a letter from Musk's team, they said: "Musk Parties intend to proceed to closing of the transaction... and adjourn the trial and all other proceedings."
Twitter notably stopped short of saying whether it would be dropping its lawsuit against the businessman, with a scheduled deposition still due to go ahead this week.
The general consensus amongst legal experts is that Musk wasn't going to come off well at trial, and losing in court could potentially mean Musk was not only forced to close the deal on the
"What Musk's move shows is that the stakes proved too high, and he didn't want to be on the losing side," social media analyst and industry commentator
On top of this, the other elephant in the room is financing the deal: something that tech analyst at Mirabaud Neil Campling told City A.M. was precariously up in the air.
Although the billionaire secured a financing commitment to provide a
"The cost of debt has gone up so much since the initial purchase offer, it is uncertain whether Musk will even be able to pay up without selling off even more of his
However, Twitter shareholders have already approved the sale, meaning that if Musk is able to push past the other hurdles, he could be on the home straight.
From what Musk has already said, content moderation will be heavily loosened under Musk's watch, heralding a new era of free speech and welcoming back long-time outcast
"I think that was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in
Given the fuss he has made about Twitter's bot count, he is also likely to clamp down on fake accounts and double-down on boosting profitability.
For Musk, this means shifting away from the reliance on advertising, which has chipped away at Twitter's recent quarterly results.
However, the major concern here is that he could be fighting a losing battle with the growing dominance of rival firms like
With this in mind, Musk's desire for an "everything app", which is reminiscent of
Snap's chief
Nonetheless, until we get more clarity about what this U-turn will logistically mean, Musk's 'X' social media remains a faraway dream.
(c) 2022 City A.M., source