We would not have credited even Elon Musk with his sudden decision to buy Twitter for the full price after months of legal proceedings during which he said he didn’t want it at all but Twitter, which hates him, was forcing him to buy it anyway. Not a rumor:

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk confirmed his intention to purchase Twitter, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Monday. “[W]e write to notify you that the Musk Parties intend to proceed to closing of the transaction contemplated by the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement,” Musk’s lawyers stated in a letter filed with the SEC.

Andrew Moran, “Elon Musk Confirms Intention to Buy Twitter, SEC Filing Shows” at Epoch Times (October 4, 2022)

The Wall Street Journal doesn’t really understand it:

Just days before his scheduled trial and after months of painful dispute, Mr. Musk agreed in a filing Monday to buy Twitter TWTR 22.24%▲—which he once suggested was a dying platform—for his original offer price of $54.20 a share. Twitter’s stock soared 22% by Tuesday’s close—after averaging a 24% discount to the offer price since the deal was first announced on April 25.

For a man who has very publicly criticized the speed and direction of innovation on his favorite social-media network, the seemingly sudden reversal is a surprising capitulation to the status quo. For reasons at this point publicly unknown, Mr. Musk will not only own the supposedly bot-riddled network he has spent the last several months deriding—he will pay a premium for it.

Laura Forman and and Dan Gallagher, “In Twitter, Musk Buys the Walking Dead” at Wall Street Journal (October 4, 2022)

Just to complicate matters, Musk’s double-ex wife, Talulah Riley, who seems to be a player in all this wanted him to buy Twitter in order to destroy it:

The newly uncovered texts revealed that Riley encouraged Musk, 51, to buy Twitter and overhaul its moderation policies. The actress also expressed her views on political issues, including her desire to combat which she referred to as “woke-ism.”

“Can you buy Twitter and then delete it, please!? xx,” Riley — whose many acting credits appearances in HBO’s “Westworld” and the 2010 movie “Inception” — wrote in one text dated March 23.

Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk’s ex-wife Talulah Riley surfaces in Twitter deal texts” at New York Post (October 4, 2022)

She was especially incensed by Twitter banning the Babylon Bee, satirical foe of all things Woke.

At Platformer, Casey Newton reminds us of the tumultuous history: “This is the man, after all, who joined Twitter’s board only to quit it less than a week later; who offered to buy it and then began denigrating executives in tweets within 24 hours; who suggested he could add tens of millions of paid subscribers to Twitter’s subscription services and then announced a deal he had already signed was somehow ‘on hold.’”

At Vox, Peter Kafka is being cautious: “What changed? We don’t know yet. We do know that Musk is at best unpredictable and that we shouldn’t take anything he says or does at face value. Even if the two sides met in Delaware court on Tuesday to discuss the proposal, as the New York Times has reported, it doesn’t mean it will go through or that he won’t have another reversal at some point.”

At Mediaite, we are told that Twitter employees “ Explode Over Musk Deal: ‘Cue the Layoffs’

Well, as Musk’s ex-wife (they were married and divorced twice) is a Babylon Bee fan, we will give the Bee the last word on that:

One thing about Twitter: It doesn’t make much money — which may play a key role in all this in the sense that many can afford to play around with it. And for everyone watching, the drama is free.

Note: In other industry news, Facebook is quietly preparing to lay off thousands. Is Big Social Media is fading as a social power?

You may also wish to read: Twitter’s censorship — Child porn (shrug… ), MDs’ doubts: NO! Twitter censored doctors and researchers who raised doubts about COVID strategies but seemed helpless about child porn. A disturbing pattern emerges when one looks at well-known instances of Twitter acting as a vigorous censor of views and claims that were later vindicated.