The $44 billion takeover

Twitter agreed to a cash sale at $54.20 per share on April 25, 2022. Its announcement valued the deal at approximately $44 billion. That figure described the acquisition of the company, not a fee paid to uncover government misconduct or a budget for the subsequent reporting project. [1]

Musk attempted to terminate the agreement in July, alleging that Twitter had failed to supply adequate information, including information concerning spam and fake accounts. An attempted termination is not proof that the company’s disclosures were fraudulent. [2]

Twitter sought to enforce the agreement. Before the scheduled trial, Musk agreed to proceed on its original terms; the October 27 closing was then recorded in his SEC filing. Separating those steps matters: the purchase was neither a simple overnight decision nor a court verdict establishing Musk’s accusations against Twitter. [3][4]

When the acquisition closed, Musk controlled a company containing years of internal discussions about users, moderation and government contacts. The Files’ distinctive contribution was access to some of that internal record, rather than an ordinary outside reconstruction from public statements. [1][2]

The project began publicly on December 2, 2022. Taibbi told his readers he had accepted conditions in exchange for access and would publish on Twitter first. Later installments appeared under different writers’ names; the collection is a reporting series, not one signed report with a uniform method. [3][4]

That arrangement can produce important journalism and still need scrutiny. A message showing an employee’s uncertainty is useful evidence; it is not automatically proof that a whole policy was unlawful. A screenshot also cannot tell a reader which surrounding messages were excluded from the published selection. The next chapter examines that access problem directly.