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(Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for TIME)

Elon Musk just announced that he seems willing to purchase Twitter again at the original price of $54.20/share. Unless he’s addicted to living dangerously — which is a possibility! — let’s assume this is a serious offer and not a bid to jerk around the market just to stall his deposition and looming trial. Because… that tactic would not end well for him.

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Twitter stock immediately spiked and trading has since been halted due to volume, but it’s highly likely to soar back up toward Musk’s weed joke of an offer once the guardrails come back off.

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While it’s often folly to attempt to divine a logic behind any of Musk’s decisions, this one seems relatively straightforward. Someone — maybe an actual GC? — finally broke through the wall of sycophants surrounding Musk and explained to him how utterly screwed he was at trial.

As it turns out, it’s not a great decision to jettison all customary acquisition protections and leave yourself completely exposed. Or to play games with discovery. Or to bank your case on a whistleblower report that ultimately confirmed Twitter’s case. From the moment he tried to back out of a deal where he’d overruled his own lawyers and left himself no room to back out, no one with a lick of sense — which is why we exclude this article — thought he had much of a chance. Down the stretch, his best bet was kicking up enough publicity that the government would launch an investigation into the very issue he waived his right to explore through the diligence process and create a back door adverse change covering his own mistake. Apparently, that’s not looking as promising as he once expected.

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Because make no mistake, defendants don’t settle for ONE HUNDRED PERCENT before trial if they think there’s even a chance of frightening the plaintiff. Musk bluffed and lost.

Unless his apparent new role as Putin’s top diplomat increased his urgency to buy the platform to start permabanning everyone sporting Ukrainian flags, though we’ll stick with the most likely reason.

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Earlier: Twitter Complaint Demonstrates That Every Lawyer, Everywhere, Always Is Smarter Than Elon Musk
Elon Musk Will Beat Twitter! WSJ Says It’s Obvious… Assuming You Change Every Single Fact And Law.
Is It Bad When Opposing Counsel’s Writes Judge, ‘Here We Are Again’? Asking For Elon Musk.

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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Courts, Elon Musk, Technology, Twitter