If there has been any doubt that Elon Musk might not buy Twitter, there was no sign of it on display during the social media company's shareholder meeting May 25.
The vagaries of Musk's interest and objections have vacillated since his offer to buy Twitter for $40 billion on April 14 — and been well-documented in headlines and millions of Tweets since.
In the last two weeks, Musk himself has cast significant doubt about the deal, saying he would pause the takeover until Twitter can verify how many bots it has on the platform.
He has also broken deal terms including a non-disparagement clause, and there has been rampant speculation that Musk may be interested in renegotiating the sales price.
Twitter (TWTR) has lost $8 billion in valuation since the proposed take private offer and was worth $27.32 billion as of May 24.
The stock has dropped by 22% since the offer.
But the rollercoaster deal hit another twist on May 25 after Twitter's meeting, when Musk said in an SEC filing that he was upping the personal stake he will commit to the deal.
“[The move will] increase the aggregate principle amount of the equity commitment [from Musk] to $33.5 billion,” the filing reads.
In addition, Musk said he's also in talks with former Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey about joining him in the takeover.
The move could be a sign that Tesla's (TSLA) leader is doubling down on his commitment to the plan.
But Musk also likely faces a protracted legal fight if he does decide to tear up the deal contract, as well as $1 billion breakup fee that was included in the original deal terms.
Despite all that, Twitter signaled May 25 that it is still very much committed to the takeover — with Musk's cooperation or not.
What Deal Confusion?
Twitter's May 25 shareholder meeting was a master class in tap dancing and obfuscating around a major topic.
While most people on the call were almost certainly there to learn more about Twitter's responses to Musk — and its plan if the deal falls apart — the company stuck closely to its script and let very little daylight appear between its merger plans and any objections its C-suite may have.
Almost as soon as the call began, Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal doused any hope of finding insight about the deal during the session.
"We cannot discuss the transaction today, even as we work towards closing this transaction," he said less than five minutes into the session.
Sean Edgett, general counsel for Twitter, also quickly shut down any potential openings for deal-related questions.
"We aren't able to address these questions today, and we won't be making any statements about the transaction," Edgett said.
The remainder of the call did see a litany of questions that tried every possible way to ask what Twitter will do about the Musk situation, with shareholders twisting themselves knots to ask them in anonymized and theoretical ways.
Twitter Stands Firm
Still, Twitter's refusal to budge on the issue and tell the listeners what they actually wanted to hear sent a very loud signal to both market watchers and regulators alike.
Primarily, that no matter what Musk may be saying or doing right now, Twitter remains committed to seeing the deal executed to within the exact letter of the law.
That could come in handy if Musk does want to kibosh the deal, because Twitter has already signaled in a recent 10-Q document with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has litigation on its mind if the merger falls through.
"Regardless of the outcome of any future litigation related to the merger, such litigation may be time-consuming and expensive and may distract our management from running the day-to-day operations of our business," the filing reads.
"The litigation costs and diversion of management’s attention and resources to address the claims and counterclaims in any litigation related to the merger may materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, prospects, cash flows, and financial condition."
So What About The Trump Issue?
You know it was a top secret, lips-sealed situation because Twitter execs seemed almost relieved to be asked various questions about former President Donald Trump.
While no one mentioned Trump by name, about half of the meeting's questions grilled Agrawal and Co. on how the company will handle existing bans or moderate speech in the future.
For his part, the CEO attempted to cast the speech issue as one related most closely to mental health and safe spaces that are inclusive online.
"And it's only in very rare instances that our policies lead to enforcement that takes content down or bans individuals more broadly improving the health of the public conversation on Twitter remains an essential focus area for us," he said.
Twitter is focused on "limiting harm from misinformation on our service, through the policies we have around civic integrity, misinformation, manipulated media," Agrawal said.
“Silencing political commentary is antithetical to our commitment to free speech,” Agrawal said on the call.
“Our tools and processes aim to enforce these rules without any bias and do so dispassionately and equally for all users, regardless of their background [or] political affiliation.”
Musk Trolls Were Still On The Call Anyway
Despite all that, there was at least one activist shareholder attempting to get Musk a message about how welcome his continued bid attempt might be.
“You once called wokeness a ‘mind virus,’ we agree,” Ethan Peck, an associate at the National Center for Public Policy Research, said on the call.
Peck has already made headlines for attempting to get the company to investigate if Twitter is engaged in “discrimination against employees deemed ‘non-diverse.’”
That effort ultimately failed, but Peck was determined to get his point across on May 25.
“Fellow shareholders, it’s on our dime that Twitter is implementing these immoral and blatantly discriminatory policies, and in doing so, the company is stealing from us in plain sight,” he said.
Whether or not Musk may actually walk away from the deal entirely, thus actually stealing a lot of Twitter's value in plain sight, remains to be seen.
