Elon Musk late Friday proved that it’s a mistake to think of him as unpredictable. In a move that everyone from investors to casual observers have been predicting for many weeks, he formally bailed out on his $44-billion deal to buy Twitter.
Musk’s stated rationale for abandoning the deal, as set forth in a letter from his lawyers to Twitter, make no sense. They’re all based on his purported supposition that the condition of Twitter’s business is worse than the company has let on, but he presents no evidence to support his claims.
The word “appears” is forced to carry the major burden of his assertions. Twitter, he says in the letter, “appears to have made false and misleading representations” somehow designed to coax him into signing a merger agreement on April 25. The merger agreement, he contends, “appears to contain materially inaccurate representations.”
