Twitter’s beef with Musk is hurting shareholders — and a court case won’t solve that

Twitter’s beef with Musk is hurting shareholders — and a court case won’t solve that

Elon Musk’s recent highly public back and forth with Twitter has given the market whiplash. Twitter, while initially resisting the tycoon, went on to sign an agreement with him worth US$44 billion (£36.6 billion) in April 2022. The deal placed a 38% premium on Twitter’s then-share price. While the market would expect value to be added on a deal like this, more recent events have pushed the premium up even further. This will not benefit shareholders on either side.

Much has changed since Musk’s April offer. Technology stocks have taken a beating due to fears of a recession. Big tech has lost an average of 26% in value, while many smaller tech stocks have lost up to 70%. Tesla shares, which Musk was using to back his Twitter deal, have not been spared either as prices nearly halved between early April and late May, although they have recovered slightly since.