Elon MuskImage source, Getty Images

It was starting to feel like Musk and his followers were in a constant state of dance.

It came to an abrupt end with a short, succinct letter from Musk's lawyers to Twitter's, which announced that he intended to buy the firm after all.

In April 2022, the dance started. Musk was invited to join the board after buying some of the company's stock. He initially accepted and then turned down the offer. He wanted to buy the entire platform.

He was trying to become a majority shareholder and he was trying to stop it. The $44 billion takeover package he offered was more than the firm was worth.

The social networking site accepted. The company's estimation of the amount of bot accounts on the platform was incorrect. Both parties kept going in the same direction.

Musk said he was pulling out because of this. It's important because if it's bloated with stuff that isn't real, it's less attractive than it could be.

There was speculation that Musk's offer had been made impulsively, and his plan to finance the deal, which involved selling off some of his shares in his company, had made investors nervous, forcing him to look for an exit strategy.

In less than a fortnight's time, the two warring parties were due to face each other in court because the other party wanted to force the sale through and the other party didn't want to. If it walked away, there was a $1 billion fee to be paid.

There had been some embarrassing revelations in court documents, such as private messages which showed that Musk and Agrawal had fallen out.

There was more to come during the deposition. It is possible that Mr Musk is buying himself some time to prepare for the court case that many predicted he would lose.

We will have to wait and see what happens with his "X, the app for everything" message. He could be looking at something similar to the Chinese app. There is no such thing as a "super app" in the western world.

Compared with its competitors, it is a relatively small platform with around 300m monthly users. It is used by politicians and world leaders to share their opinions.

Mr Musk said he wanted to open the platform up to more free speech and less moderation, which is a tricky line for any social media firm to walk.

The news is good for the business, whose shares rose after the lawyer's letter was revealed, but Musk may decide to turn the platform into a very different kind of playground. It could bring in a whole new crowd, but it could also hurt its current fan base. The CEO is probably dusting off his resume.

  • Social media
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Elon Musk
  • Twitter