Eight ways the Musk/Twitter saga could end

1. Deal ends, Musk pays breakup fee

In theory, this may be the cleanest option for everyone — no litigation, Musk agrees to pay the contract’s $1 billion termination fee and Twitter carries on, albeit at a valuation significantly lower than $44 billion. This is the path Twitter co-founder Ev Williams appeared to back when he tweeted that he would be asking if “we can just let this whole ugly episode blow over” if he were still on the board.

The problem is the board could be breaching its fiduciary duty if it lets Musk walk − and Taylor’s response suggests Twitter has no intention of doing that.

Twitter also has a strong legal argument that Musk locked himself into buying the company for $54.20 a share. Allowing him to walk away after only paying the breakup fee would probably push Twitter’s shares even lower. They’ve already been trading at a significant discount as investors question if and when a deal will happen. On Friday, the stock closed at $36.81.

“They can’t just say, ’Alright, let’s spare us the pain, Elon, we’ll let you knock the price down by $20 per share, or we’ll settle, we’ll agree to walk away if you just pay the billion-dollar break fee,” said Ann Lipton, a professor of corporate governance at Tulane Law School. “Twitter is just not in a position to be able to do that.”