It had to be a hell of a problem he faced should the suit move forward:
Twitter is worth perhaps half the price Elon paid
Tesla is worth half what is was when Elon started accumulating shares
IOW Elon used money that cost him 2X what is did last year to buy something worth 0.5X what he just now paid (assuming the check clears).
Even for the Richest Man Ever that will sting.
Innovation may take a back seat to cost cutting, like a basic LBO. Elon has creditors who lent him about $13B that got used to buy a thing worth half what was paid. What are the covenants on that? Twitter has about $4B in existing long term debt. Twitter free cash flow is negative, and 3X more negative than a year earlier. Where will debt service come from?
These are the mundane, apolitical reasons Twitter faces more headwinds now than before. Elon is much about doing more with less. He will need a lot of that to happen.
Even for the Richest Man Ever that will sting.
Innovation may take a back seat to cost cutting, like a basic LBO. Elon has creditors who lent him about $13B that got used to buy a thing worth half what was paid. What are the covenants on that? Twitter has about $4B in existing long term debt. Twitter free cash flow is negative, and 3X more negative than a year earlier. Where will debt service come from?
These are the mundane, apolitical reasons Twitter faces more headwinds now than before. Elon is much about doing more with less. He will need a lot of that to happen.
Twitter was badly run by several metrics.