He did spend months trying to get out of it, a good indicator of regret, but he has since completely dedicated himself to the company so hard to tell currently. Musk must say he regrets buying Twitter or some obvious variation of that by the end of 2023 for this to resolve YES.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBiFNPKbU7A
In this interview he basically directly answers the question as No nd doesn't regret it since some things are priceless
@Aella could tweet him, he has replied to her tweets before, maybe she could ask him, or have @LexFridman ask bluntly in a tweet π #DoYouRegretIt π€£
I suggest this is close enough:
Musk uses analogy of warehouse said to have less than 5% broken goods but turn out to be 25% broken goods.
BBC Interviewer "So then you changed your mind again and decided to buy it [twitter]"
Musk "Well, I kind of had to"
BBC Interviewer "So did you do that because you thought a court would make you do that?"
Musk "yes"
BBC Interviewer "right"
Musk "laughs yes, that is the reason"
BBC Interviewer "So you were still trying to get out of it but you were advised by lawyers that you were going have to buy this"
Musk "yes"
BBC Interviewer "Interesting so you didn't actually want to purchase it even at that point when you said you would."
Musk "well not at that price."
Musk uses analogy of warehouse said to have less than 5% broken goods but turn out to be 25% again indicating you might still want the good but you may well want it at a lower price.
Musk "Its not super complicated"
This is about 8 minutes in to
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001lck5/elon-musk-interview-with-the-bbc
It may well not be available outside the UK but if the whole UK can watch this, I think that is public enough and if you want someone else to check my transcript above is reasonable (probably not perfect) then I am sure it should be possible to get someone to do that.
This might be viewed as regrets paying so much for it but still would have wanted to buy it at a lower price. Is this publicly expressing regret about the twitter purchase? I think it can be said that it is. It is not the same as saying I shouldn't have bought it at any price but the question doesn't require that, just regret. There is some regret or equivalent here at being forced to pay so much and he still wanted to get out of it at time he went ahead.
If you bought a house that was only worth 75% of what you paid for it, would you say you regret the decision? I think you would even if you wish you could have bought it for 70% of what you paid.
@ChristopherRandles This is from April, and since then Musk said buying twitter was "still the right move", which I think is more direct evidence about regret https://www.thestreet.com/technology/elon-musk-explains-why-he-doesnt-regret-high-priced-twitter-purchase (this is the same link as in my other comment)
@na_pewno Does it matter if he has said something different subsequently? I don't think it does. Saying yes to you were still trying to get out of it means he didn't want to do it. Maybe then he could have bought it at a lower price and that would be the right move but essentially he regrets doing it.
@ChristopherRandles It wouldn't matter if he actually said he regrets buying twitter before, but you're just inferring regret from the fact that he wouldn't buy twitter if he didn't have to, which doesn't necessarily imply regret.
@ChristopherRandles Also it was pretty well known that Musk wanted to back out from the deal already, and this doesn't really say more than "yes I wanted to back out from the deal".
@na_pewno Regret is the emotion of wishing one had made a different decision in the past, because the consequences of the decision one did make were unfavorable.
He didn't say the word regret but the claim allows for obvious variation of that. I assume saying yes to a question that did include regret would suffice. From what we have seen, does expressing a clear preference for being allowed to get out of the deal essentially imply regret? The alternative to this implying regret from this seems to me to be that the purely logical reaction and decision to the circumstances was to not to proceed if that was allowed but Musk is a completely emotionless guy so he didn't actually express any emotion? Does anyone actually believe that? (I think the laugh is expressing emotion and it is regret not humour but maybe that isn't ***saying*** it..)
@ChristopherRandles I definitely saw, and itβs posted in the comments below from a couple months back, and I agree itβs very close but not quite there yet. I do think he will say it when he has to deal with the banks trying to sell the debt for less than 100 cents on the dollar.
@ChristopherRandles "The alternative to this implying regret from this seems to me to be that the purely logical reaction and decision to the circumstances was to not to proceed if that was allowed but Musk is a completely emotionless guy so he didn't actually express any emotion?" It's now clear the market won't resolve based on that but I'll add that I think there are several other possibilities.
having regretted it at the time but not when he talked about it (e.g. coming to a conclusion that it was still the right move after all)
no regret but other emotions, e.g. frustration, disappointment, determination to work with the situation
not regretting the decision because it was good in probabilistic terms, the information he had suggested only "5% broken goods"
he does feel regret but wouldn't admit it
@na_pewno I see no evidence of 1, 3 or 4 on your list and probably evidence against these. Re 2 a mix of such emotions is likely and regret is likely to be at least one of them. Regret not being one of them seems unlikely but is possible and if it isn't stated clearly you have a point that it is not clearly expressed.
I accept question isn't likely to be resolved based on this.
So for the purpose of understand the question / market better, suppose Musk answered yes or equivalent to a question like 'Do you regret waiving due diligence?' Would this regret about an aspect of how the deal went suffice to resolve as yes?
How about a yes to 'Do you regret agreeing to pay so much for Twitter?'
@BTE I don't think this tells you much. I think he's been open about the deal being expensive for quite some time. I've searched for an article containing the word "regret" and found one from June 1st where he says it was "still the right move."
https://www.thestreet.com/technology/elon-musk-explains-why-he-doesnt-regret-high-priced-twitter-purchase
"I think if someone is a regular Twitter user, then most people would say their experience has improved," Musk said.Β "We've gotten rid of 90% of bots and scams and various bad things happening. We've gotten rid of 95% of child exploitation material on Twitter, which was a shock to see ... some of what was going on for 10 years."Β
ha ha
Can you add examples of what would and would not count? I can imagine him doing some joking allusion to his regret which would be ambiguous without further clarification.
Also, it is possible he could say "I regret signing onto $54.20/share without doing more due diligence, but I do not regret the purchase itself, only the price", and it's not clear how this market would resolve with that
@PhillipConstantine Well, he has already said that second part MANY times. He sued to get out of the deal so we already know he regrets it, likely both the price and the decision. I am talking about a statement that if he could go back and do it again he would not make an offer in the first place. Will he admit what is already plainly clear.
Let's be honest about how much he actually spent and what else he could have done with that money. He could own every NFL franchise, plus Chelsea, Manchester United and the Yankees. He could have bought Ford ($55B market cap currently) or GM ($56B market cap currently).
@PhillipConstantine That was me commenting. Sorry, created new account to make markets related to work.
@BTE thanks for clarifying. He has spent so much time building it up as a sacred cause that it's hard to image him pivoting to "wish I had never done this" (even though I'm sure he does π€£) but it's much easier to say "I messed up personally", because that doesn't attack anything seen as a sacred cause.
