Musk grumbles about 'overpaying' for Twitter but says he's excited

Tick tick tick ... just 8 days to go

Billionaire Tesla boss Elon Musk told analysts last night he was excited about his upcoming deal to buy Twitter despite his apparent belief that he will be "obviously overpaying."

Musk has just eight days to complete the Twitter acquisition after the social media firm sued him in a Delaware Chancery court to force him to stick to his April promise to buy the company at $54.20 a share ($44 billion).

Judge Kathaleen McCormick agreed to a stay of the trial on October 6, ruling at the time that if "the transaction does not close by 5pm on October 28, 2022, the parties are instructed to contact me by email that evening to obtain November 2022 trial dates."

Musk had previously attempted to end the agreement without paying a $1 billion break-up fee to walk away, saying he did not believe Twitter's user totals, and earlier had asked the judge to delay the trial while he figured out financing. Musk has already sold $15.4 billion worth of Tesla shares since agreeing to buy Twitter.

Speaking to analysts on a Tesla earnings call discussing the electric carmaker's Q3 2022 financial results, he noted: "Although, obviously, myself [sic] and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now, the long-term potential for Twitter, in my view, is an order of magnitude greater than its current value."

One of the analysts on the call went on to ask him if he planned to borg all of his corporations under an Alphabet-style parent org (which in theory would mean he could complain that Tesla peons weren't working to his satisfaction without technically being absent from his other business ventures himself).

Also, he could finally call it SkyNet, having infuriatingly missed the opportunity when branding actual in-flight networks in the sky yesterday. But alas, it is not to be.

Asked "how much would the combined companies benefit from operating under a single super structure, if at all, like a Google Alphabet?" he responded: "It's not clear to me what the overlap is. It's not zero, but it's – I think we're reaching."

So there you have it, Twitter devs, no Musky SkyNet. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that the social media platform has frozen equity awards accounts for employees as the deadline to seal the deal approaches.

Buckle up, kids. ®