According to texts revealed in Elon Musk’s legal proceedings against Twitter, crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried has wanted to buy the social media platform “for a while.”
According to Insider, William MacAskill, a member of the SBF-funded FTX Future Fund, attempted to set up a meeting between the FTX CEO and Musk in March to see if the two could purchase Twitter in a “joint effort.”
The text message exhibits were later published online by New York Times reporter Kate Conger, who confirmed the Insider account.
And here's where the board seat idea fell apart: "This is a waste of time." pic.twitter.com/s4kTdK0Ja3
— kate conger (@kateconger) September 29, 2022
MacAskill, an Oxford University philosophy professor and self-described “altruist,” reportedly stated that Bankman-Fried was willing to contribute $8-15 billion to the Twitter acquisition, but Morgan Stanley’s Head of Global Technology Investment Banking Michael Grimes later informed Musk that Bankman-Fried was only willing to contribute $5 billion for a joint deal to share the Web2 company.
Given Musk’s subsequent aversion to Twitter’s practices, the crypto-tech billionaire teamup is unlikely to happen.
Musk stated that the Twitter deal could not proceed because he believes that 90% of Twitter comments are from bot or spam accounts. Musk’s team also expressed concerns about the proportion of Twitter’s reported 238 million daily active users who are not automated bot accounts.
According to a July filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla’s representatives claimed that Twitter “made false and misleading representations” and “is in material breach of multiple provisions” of their agreement (SEC).
In response to Musk’s withdrawal from the $44 billion deal, Twitter filed a lawsuit against him in July.
According to the July filing, Twitter argued Musk was not allowed to “trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.” It also stated that employee departures had increased since the deal was made public. While Musk’s team counterclaimed that Twitter’s staff have access to sensitive systems, posing a security risk.
