Published , by Asif Khan
Published , by Asif Khan
Elon Musk has been thumbing his nose at Twitter and the Securities Exchange Commission for months now, and he appears to have saved his dankest meme just for the SEC. In a thread about the impending Twitter lawsuit, Musk replied to a user calling for the regulator to investigate Twitter's bot disclosure and made sure to tag @SECGov. He also tweeted a picture of Chuck Norris playing chess because this is indeed the dumbest timeline.
Musk has been punished by the SEC in the past over tweets and has recently appealed the ruling, but he has somehow skirted those issues in recent months with the timing of his tweets about the $44 billion Twitter (TWTR) acquisition.
The market has been skeptical of Elon Musk's $44 billion valuation of Twitter for months, with shares of TWTR currently trading at a 35% discount to Musk's $54.20/share offering price. You know, the guy who put 420 in his Twitter offering price, that guy, he may have skipped some due diligence, because this is a complaint that any remotely competent acquirer could have brought up before making an offer. That's if you really wanted to do it in the first place.
Musk has replied to several of his fans who are "dunking" on the SEC. After sending shockwaves through Twitter's stock last week with his announcement that he was pulling out of the deal, it might not have been a smart move to tweet at the SEC in the middle of the night, but what do I know.
It would be pretty cool if Twitter banned Elon. Morale at the social media company is very low after a number of people quit and then a round of layoffs saw more people leave. New CEO Parag Agrawal has walked into a tough situation, but Twitter seems confident that its framework for disclosure of active user data is more accurate and useful for investors than what may qualify as a user on a rival social media platform like Facebook, which has nearly 3 billion monthly active users.
Twitter did announce as part of its Q1 2022 earnings results press release that the company had misstated the number of monetizable daily active users (mDAUs). Despite that mishap, Agrawal has tried to explain why Twitter's mDAU metric is a better way to value the company, and the $44 billion deal to buy the company will now head to court, with Elon Musk memes probably being submitted as evidence.
Will it be Chuckmate for Musk? Probably not, but it's hard not to feel bad for Twitter employees stuck in this situation.
This article is only meant for educational purposes, and should not be taken as investment advice. Please consider your own investment time horizon, risk tolerance, and consult with a financial advisor before acting on this information.
Full Disclosure:
At the time of this article, Shacknews primary shareholder Asif A. Khan, his family members, or his company Virtue LLC had the following positions:
Long Twitter via TWTR shares