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Comment by rco8786 | Hacker News Reader

Except he very deliberately put himself in this position. Twitter has reported 5% as the bot count for years, it’s not like it was some secret only uncovered during DD here. Additionally one of the main reasons Musk cited for wanting to buy Twitter was to fix the bots!

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I think his argument is that there's way more than 5% and that Twitter mislead him by saying that the bots only account for 5%. Not that it seemed to be a condition on the offer.

"I can solve FSD! This year!"

"I can solve Twitter's bot problem!"

"Oh wait, they have 10%* bots, not 5% bots? Oohh, that's a bridge too far, too hard."

*Arbitrary number chosen

That's what I am saying though - Twitter has stated for a lonnngggg time, very publicly, that it's bot number is 5%. Elon bullied them into the purchase contract knowing this information, claiming he was specifically going to fix the bot problem. But now is complaining that it's incorrect and using it as a way out of the agreement.

Say I find a house for sale that I think is at a really low price (I want to flip it), but I can see it has some termite damage on a corner. I don't see damage anywhere else and the owner signs a legal document that the termites are in less than 5% of the house. I think I can fix the termite damage and then turn a profit so I enter into an agreement to buy the house. Before we complete the transaction, I start to notice signs that the termites might be worse that initially thought. I ask to have an inspector come in and determine how much of the house is infested with termites. The owner is denying my inspection request. I inform the owner I won't complete the transaction until I get a termite inspection of the property. The owner's friend owns the local newspaper so they run a story about how I can't afford the house and I'm trying to get out of the purchase. Hi, I'm Elon Musk, but I'm buying a house and not Twitter.

It's more like, I find a house for sale and I announce that the owner is missing out on the potential value of this house, because I can see termites everywhere. I am the termite master. The owner of the house has no idea what they are doing with termites, I announce to the public. I know much more about the termites in that house than they do. They can't even see all the termites I see. What fools! The value I will bring is my termite annihilation skills.

I insist on buying the house. The owner is reluctant to agree. They delay. I continue to insist that I purchase the house immediately. The owner says, hey let's stop and think about this, let's do due diligence and inspections, let's take our time. I say screw you, there is no due diligence allowed, there is no house inspections allowed, you must accept my offer now. NOW. I insist that the house owner has a legal fiduciary responsibility to their family to sell the house, because my offer is above the assessed public value of the house. This house must be sold to me!

They give in to pressure and accept the sale. I sign all the contracts, I waive all the inspections.

"What, the house has termites? What a surprise! I want my money back."

Two big thumbs up - best explanation!

Elon Musk the Termite master ... I LOLd

More like, you find a house, you read the seller’s disclosures, waive all inspection rights, then show up just before closing and say oh yeah can i inspect the property now even though I waived inspections and all other contingencies?

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