Why did Elon Musk change his mind on Twitter deal: Explained

Elon Musk Twitter Deal: Elon Musk's missteps put him on the backfoot in the trial against Twitter resulting him in asking the trial to be put on hold as he completes the buyout.

There's never a dull moment with Elon Musk, after all. As the billionaire agreed to proceed with his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter in a stunning move, the shares of the social media platform soared while stoking alarm among media watchdogs on the kind of free speech that would flourish on Twitter under Elon Musk.

Elon Musk Twitter Deal: An image of Elon Musk is seen on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos.(Reuters)

In the months since Elon Musk's initial offer to buy Twitter in April, the Tesla boss has faced a humongous legal challenge, one that could even pressure world's richest man as Twitter tried to compel him to go forth with a buyout he wanted to back out of.

But Elon Musk's missteps put him on the backfoot in the trial against Twitter resulting him in asking the trial to be put on hold as he completes the buyout.

Here's a look at the Elon Musk Twitter deal:

Why did Elon Musk back out of the Twitter deal?

Elon Musk based his argument against the social media platform saying that Twitter vastly misrepresented “spam bot” accounts. To reinforce his argument, former Twitter head of security turned whistleblower, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko filed complaints in July alleging that Twitter misled regulators about its efforts to control millions of spam accounts.

What went wrong then for Elon Musk?

In the trial when Elon Musk pushed the argument of bots, it showed that the billionaire has announced the buyout in late April without taking due diligence of what it entails. His attitude was not reflective of the approach someone takes to buy a major company.

What made Elon Musk change his mind?

Amid the trial, Elon Musk faced potential interest costs as if he lost the trial, he would not only be forced into buying Twitter but also would need to pay interests that could increase the overall cost of the buyout.