According to a leaked SMS from Elon Musk, the billionaire abandoned the purchase of Twitter due to fear of World War III.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk made the comment to one of his lenders, Morgan Stanley, on May 8. This happened nearly 2 weeks after the conclusion of the initial deal for the purchase of the social network for 44 billion dollars.
"Let's slow down just a few days. Putin's speech tomorrow is really important," the SpaceX and Tesla CEO wrote to Michael Grimes, head of global technology investment banking at Morgan Stanley. "It wouldn't make sense to buy Twitter if we're headed for World War III," added Elon Musk.
However, Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, argued that the text was taken out of context. According to Elon Musk's defense, the reason for the rejection of the deal was the problem with Twitter's privacy and the large number of fake accounts.
