How laughing Elon Musk got serious about ending Twitter deal

theguardian.com:

Elon Musk just couldn’t help himself on Monday morning. Having announced the termination of his $44bn takeover of Twitter, he took to the platform he no longer wants to buy and mocked its likely legal response.

Musk’s tweet to his 100 million followers stated: “They want to force me to buy Twitter in court.” Twitter does indeed have grounds to seek an order requiring Musk to buy the business, despite him pulling out in a dispute over the number of spam or bot accounts on the platform.

But, as has often been the case with the deal itself, the world’s richest man doesn’t appear to take the threat seriously. “Now they have to disclose bot info in court,” says one caption in the tweet, illustrated by a series of photos of Musk laughing uproariously. It was followed by a picture of vintage action star Chuck Norris at a chessboard, with Musk tweeting under it: “Chuckmate”.

Despite being surrounded by the best advisers money can buy, Musk has had an erratic relationship with the legal minutiae of his now-abandoned $44bn (£37bn) Twitter takeover. On the one hand, his legal team has filed tightly argued disclosures against the deal, citing various clauses in the agreement. On the other, he posts poo emojis at the people he is negotiating with.