{"id":52888,"date":"2022-05-13T10:32:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T17:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=52888"},"modified":"2022-05-13T15:44:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T22:44:43","slug":"elon-musks-bid-for-twitter-is-in-big-trouble-and-so-is-trumps-truth-social","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=52888","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk&#8217;s Bid for Twitter is in Big Trouble, and So is Trump&#8217;s TRUTH Social"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was only one month ago that Elon Musk announced that he intended to acquire Twitter and take the company private. It was an audacious move that, from the start, didn&#8217;t make much sense financially. However, it did affirm the enormity of Musk&#8217;s ego and his desire to make influential social media companies his plaything.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Elon Musk's Bid for Twitter is in Big Trouble, and So is Trump's TRUTH Social%0D&#038;url=https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=52888\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to Tweet this article<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-drain.jpg\" alt=\"Donald Trump Circling the Drain\" width=\"550\" height=\"296\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-45948\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Musk made his intention to buy Twitter public after he had already purchased 73 millions shares of the company, a 9.2% stake. He is currently <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/sec-investigating-elon-musk-over-085322902.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">being investigated<\/a><\/strong> by the Securities and Exchange Commission for having failed to file the required disclosures of that stock purchase. But that&#8217;s only the tip of his troubles.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday morning Musk tweeted that he is putting the <em>&#8220;Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam\/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.&#8221;&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam\/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Y2t0QMuuyn\">https:\/\/t.co\/Y2t0QMuuyn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1525049369552048129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 13, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Due to the characteristically cryptic nature of that comment, and the trading chaos it could provoke, Musk later tried to clarify himself, tweeting that he is <em>&#8220;Still committed to the acquisition.&#8221;<\/em> However, his pausing the acquisition bid, as well as his stated reasoning for doing it, are both profoundly specious.<\/p>\n<p>First of all, Musk&#8217;s claim that he&#8217;s hesitating as a result of a report that fewer than 5% of Twitter&#8217;s accounts are spam or fake is difficult to take seriously. The scale of potential fake accounts on Twitter is not news. In fact, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/elon-musk-technology-social-media-64b8534f53aa0213fbfd2245bacd6109\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter has reported it<\/a><\/strong> in its quarterly and annual reports to the SEC for at least two years. So either Musk entered into this $44 billion deal without doing the most basic research and due diligence, or he&#8217;s lying.<\/p>\n<p>Much of Musk&#8217;s financing for Twitter is backed by his stock in Tesla. So if Musk didn&#8217;t previously know that there are fake accounts on Twitter, he was neglectfully putting the value of Tesla at risk and would be liable to shareholders for losses. If he did know, then he is likely trying to back out of the deal without having to pay the $1 billion break up fee.<\/p>\n<p>Why would Musk want to back out now, so soon after initiating this deal? It might have something to do with the reaction on Wall Street to his plans. Musk&#8217;s offer for Twitter was $54.00 per share. On April 14, when he announced his intentions, Twitter was trading at about $45.00 per share. Since then it has dropped to about $41.00, or about 12%. And it&#8217;s down more than 40% from its recent high eight months ago. The fact that the market isn&#8217;t willing to pay the offer price of $54.00 is a pretty good indicator that they don&#8217;t think the deal will ever go through.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s more, the price of Tesla has also declined precipitously. It was trading at about $985.00 when Musk revealed his interest in Twitter in April. It&#8217;s down to about $780 now, a drop of about 20%. And it&#8217;s down more than 42% from its recent high three months ago. Since Musk is using his Tesla stock to finance the Twitter acquisition, and Tesla&#8217;s stock has dropped substantially, the Twitter purchase price becomes much greater for Musk. Which is further evidence that he may be trying to ditch the deal.<\/p>\n<p>So how would all of this affect Donald Trump&#8217;s Twitter clone, TRUTH Social? Theoretically, any weakness in its biggest competitor should be a positive for the TRUTH(less) app. However, the shady shell company that is serving as Trump&#8217;s vehicle for the enterprise, Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) has been trading down ever since Musk&#8217;s Twitter bid became public. On April 14, it was at about $50.00 per share. Now it&#8217;s at about $40.00, a 20% drop. And from its recent high of around $100.00 just a couple of months ago, it&#8217;s down a whopping 60%.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=52795\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Judge Dismisses Trump\u2019s Loopy Lawsuit Against Twitter for \u2018Failure to Plausibly State a Claim\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apparently Wall Street doesn&#8217;t have any more confidence in another Trump boondoggle, than they do in Musk&#8217;s deal. And it appears to be irrelevant that Musk promised to restore Trump&#8217;s Twitter account when &#8211; make that if &#8211; he takes over. Trump has already said that he would not return to Twitter, even if his account were reinstated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEE <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=52670\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trump Declares that \u2018I Am Not Going Back On Twitter\u2019 After the Elon Musk Takeover<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That, of course, is probably another Trump lie. There is no way that he would be satisfied with a few thousand followers on TRUTH Social if he could regain his 84 million followers on Twitter. But he can&#8217;t say that now or it would appear that he favors the competition. So the grift goes on &#8211; for both Trump and Musk.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> Trump has <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RonFilipkowski\/status\/1525119921251917824\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">weighed in<\/a><\/strong> saying that&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThere is no way Elon Musk is going to buy Twitter at such a ridiculous price, especially since realizing it is a company largely based on BOTS or Spam Accounts. Fake anyone? By the time you get rid of them, if that can even be done, what do you have? Not much? If it weren\u2019t for the ridiculous Billion Dollar breakup fee, Elon would have already been long gone. Just my opinion, but Truth Social is MUCH better than Twitter and is absolutely exploding, incredible engagement.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Trump used to brag about his gazillions of Twitter followers. Now he is asserting that they are <em>&#8220;largely based on BOTS or Spam Accounts.&#8221;<\/em> He&#8217;s also dramatically exaggerating the reported 5% as <em>&#8220;largely&#8221;<\/em>. But then he&#8217;s never been very good &#8211; or honest &#8211; with numbers (see his crowd size estimates and property values). And TRUTH social is already crawling with fake accounts. The site even <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=52670\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>\u201cverified\u201d<\/em> a fake Fox News account<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color:blue;\"><strong>NOTE:<\/strong> Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">articles from my website<\/a><\/strong>, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong>Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse<br \/>\non <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NewsCorpse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/newscorpse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong>And check out my books on Amazon:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2aOYFpM\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Fox Nation vs. Reality:<br \/>\nThe Fox News Cult of Ignorance.<\/a><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong>Thanks so much for your support.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was only one month ago that Elon Musk announced that he intended to acquire Twitter and take the company private. It was an audacious move that, from the start, didn&#8217;t make much sense financially. However, it did affirm the enormity of Musk&#8217;s ego and his desire to make influential social media companies his plaything. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,11],"tags":[554,1464,1457,1458,1163],"class_list":["post-52888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-socialmedia","tag-donald-trump","tag-elon-musk","tag-social-media","tag-truth-social","tag-twitter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-drain.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-dL2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55299,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=55299","url_meta":{"origin":52888,"position":0},"title":"Twitter Tyrant Elon Musk Comes Out Against Free Markets and Free Speech","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/4\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"It really is a sad commentary on the state of the American economy when the world's richest man is found whining about losing money due to his own incompetence, ignorance, ego, and greed. Yet that's where we are now as Elon Musk discovers that the rest of the world isn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Elon Musk, Cash Pile","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/musk-cash.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/musk-cash.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/musk-cash.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55258,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=55258","url_meta":{"origin":52888,"position":1},"title":"Tucker Carlson Defends Elon Musk&#8217;s Disgusting Tweet About the Attack on Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s Husband","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/1\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Less than a week after Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter was completed, Musk himself provided the best evidence for why he may the worst person on the planet to own such a influential platform. His racism, misogyny, narcissism, and warped view of what constitutes free speech are the ingredients of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News. Tucker Carlson","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-tucker-carlson-fake.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-tucker-carlson-fake.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-tucker-carlson-fake.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52670,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=52670","url_meta":{"origin":52888,"position":2},"title":"Trump Declares that &#8216;I Am Not Going Back On Twitter&#8217; After the Elon Musk Takeover","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/25\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"America's oligarchy is exercising it's privilege once again as the world's richest man drops a few of his billions of dollars to add Twitter to the playroom in his ultra-exclusive world. Elon Musk's acquisition of the social media giant is profoundly significant due to its influence on politics, journalism, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Free Press&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Free Press","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-twitter-birds-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-twitter-birds-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-twitter-birds-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":66429,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=66429","url_meta":{"origin":52888,"position":3},"title":"Trump Threatens to Cancel Musk&#8217;s Government Contracts Because He &#8216;Just Went Crazy&#8217;","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/5\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The intensifying feud between Donald Trump and his billionaire benefactor, Elon Musk, is providing some of the best soap opera melodrama that America has seen in decades. And coming just a few days after they had an affectionate farewell in the Oval Office just makes it all the more enticing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump and Elon Musk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-musk-yell.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-musk-yell.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-musk-yell.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55469,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=55469","url_meta":{"origin":52888,"position":4},"title":"Why Elon Musk Restoring Trump&#8217;s Twitter Account is Ignorant, Dangerous, and Hypocritical","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/20\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Nearly two years ago Twitter suspended Donald Trump's account due to his reckless and relentless lies about election fraud. Twitter imposed the ban on January 8th, two days after Trump's deadly insurrection on Capitol Hill, saying that \"we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Censorship&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=56"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-twitter-birds-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-twitter-birds-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-twitter-birds-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55707,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=55707","url_meta":{"origin":52888,"position":5},"title":"Elon Musk&#8217;s &#8216;Twitter Files&#8217; Farce Fails Pitifully in Portraying Poor Trump as a Put Upon Victim","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/13\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"From its outset, Elon Musk's \"Twitter Files\" Soap Opera purported to expose the social media platform's content moderation staff as biased against Donald Trump. However, after four episodes it utterly failed to achieve its own blatantly biased objective. Now the fifth and latest installment flops in a similarly humiliating manner.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump Pacifier Fox","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-phone-pacifier-fox.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-phone-pacifier-fox.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-phone-pacifier-fox.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52888"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52896,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52888\/revisions\/52896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}