The Musk fox, Twitter Coup and a Fish & Chip offer

A fish and chip offer is a nasty thing. A buyer tempts a seller in with a big fish and then once it is accepted proceeds to chip, chip away at it. The seller is left with nothing like the original fish that was offered.

Firstly, the buyer will find themselves in need of a reason for the chipping away at the fish, and Musk has questioned how many actual human accounts Twitter has. Of course, this could be the actual problem, or it could just be one that sounds good. Given the recent drop in the valuations of technology firms Musk’s offer of £44 billion looks far too expensive. Of course, any reason is as good as another if you simply don’t want to keep to your offer on something anymore.

The problem is, this is public chipping not just at the deal but at the actual value of Twitter. Every statement or tweet Musk makes, can actually devalue Twitter. Who else would want to buy a firm that can’t even prove how big its main asset is? The fact that this deal was not subject to confidentiality clauses covering the due diligence period absolutely beggar’s belief, a schoolboy error in an arena where competence is essential.

The conversation is all about Musk doing due diligence on Twitter, whether Twitter is what it claims to be. The facts are though that all sellers should do just as much checking on their buyer. A little reverse due diligence on Musk’s previous tweeting and trumpeting should have made it very clear to Twitter to engage with extreme caution.

There is a new eBook I have just written which covers a fool proof step by step formulae for checking out a buyer before you let the wolf in the door. If you want a copy just reply with a yes.

Twitter has sadly now welcomed a fox into its chicken pen, don’t do the same whenever you want to take a step back and look to get your value off the table. Don’t get me wrong I like Elon Musk, the fox will do what it does, it must be muzzled before it is let into the pen though.

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