Tesla CEO Musk, who serves in the same role at Twitter today, said Dorsey said he thought he would have to pay $1 billion to back out of a deal to acquire the social media platform. The comments are a stark reversal from Dorsey’s strong approval of a Musk acquisition, when he wrote a year ago that if Twitter were to be a company, “Elon is the only solution I believe.”
“I believe in his mission to expand the light of consciousness,” Dorsey Tweeted At the time.
In his comments to Bluesky Friday, Dorsey struck a very different tone.
Dorsey said he doesn’t think Musk “acted right” after realizing his potential mistake by going after the site, adding that he doesn’t believe the company’s board should have forced the sale.
“It all went south,” Dorsey added.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment on Dorsey’s comments. Musk appeared on Friday night’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO, and during his time at the helm of the company, US Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DNY) spoke on topics including a recent meeting with him and his concerns. About the rhetoric coming from the political left.
“It was on the fast track to bankruptcy,” Musk said of Twitter. “So I had to take drastic action. There was no choice.”
Musk took over Twitter in October after accumulating a substantial stake in the company in early 2022. He provided At $54.20 a share, the company is valued at $44 billion.
Twitter’s board approved Musk’s buyout in late April, triggering a deal to take the company private. If Musk decides to back out, the terms of the deal include a $1 billion penalty, known as a “breakup fee.”
(Experts have noted that if Musk had breached the contract, he would have had to pay an amount beyond the $1 billion fine.)
After the deal, Twitter’s valuation dropped significantly as economic pressures weighed heavily on the company and Tesla’s stock, the latter of which sharply reduced Musk’s net worth. Musk announced his intention to back out of the deal, and Twitter sued Musk.
After a month-long court battle that included Musk’s countersuit, Musk and Twitter agreed in October to proceed with the deal, which was finalized later that month for $44 billion.
Musk’s tenure as Twitter boss has been marked by steep job cuts, a radical work environment and a total overhaul of the site’s user experience. Twitter leans heavily on a subscription model and curated feeds, which aim to show users content they want to engage with the most. Since Musk’s acquisition, Twitter’s workforce has been cut by about 80 percent.
Dorsey previously apologized for growing the company “too quickly,” reducing the company by 50 percent after Musk made layoffs. Since then, he has sometimes criticized Musk’s decision-making, for example, taking to Twitter to express his disagreement with Musk renaming the site’s “Birdwatch” feature to “Social Notes.”
The Post previously reported that Dorsey rolled $1 billion of his Twitter stock into Musk’s privatized Twitter.
In his posts on Friday, Dorsey did not take responsibility for Musk’s acquisition of the company, arguing that “every company is sold to the highest bidder” and that the board had no choice but to accept his offer.
“Was I optimistic? Yes,” Dorsey said. “Should I finally say? No.”
Once Musk tried to back down, Dorsey added, “I wish the board hadn’t forced the sale. Maybe there was a chance, but now we’ll never know. As for Musk’s decision to complete the purchase without paying the $1 billion fine, Dorsey said, “I think he should have walked out and paid the $1b.”
Bluesky was part of Dorsey’s plan when he was Twitter’s CEO to create a “decentralized” social media system where no one person or company controlled the experience. Although Twitter invested in Bluesky, it is now a separate company with its own CEO. In recent days, it has quickly attracted high-profile Twitter users, some of whom are disillusioned with Kasthuri’s platform.
Responding to a post where one user said, “It’s so sad how it all went down,” Dorsey simply replied: “Yes.”
