Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Newly disclosed text messages between Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal showed that the two men briefly bonded in the spring over their love of engineering - at least until Musk publicly tweeted this message early on April 9: ` Is Twitter dying? ”'
That soured a relationship that appeared to bloom around the time Twitter offered the billionaire Tesla CEO a board seat after learning that he had purchased a huge stake in the company. In the texts, Agrawal questioned Musk about his public criticism of Twitter, describing the comments as unhelpful and distracting within the company.
“What did you get done this week?” Musk tersely responded less than a minute later. “I'm not joining the board. This is a waste of time. Will make an offer to take Twitter private.”
The messages revealed in Delaware court filings ahead of a high-stakes trial offer a window into Twitter's delicate negotiations with Musk. At the time, the billionaire had not only invested heavily in Twitter shares, he was publicly proposing ideas for improving it or starting an alternative.
Twitter and Musk are due in court Oct. 17 for a trial that will decide whether the world's richest man will be forced to complete his agreed-to $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. The documents were first revealed on chancery-daily, a Twitter account that closely follows the Delaware Chancery Court, where the five-day trial will take place.
“I have a ton of ideas, but lmk if I'm pushing too hard,” Musk texted Agrawal on April 7, shortly after Twitter offered him the board seat. “I just want Twitter to be maximum amazing.”
Agrawal invited Musk to “treat me like an engineer” instead of a CEO as they worked through technical questions together. At one point, Musk wrote, “I love our conversations!”
Two days after the blowup about Musk's “Twitter dying” tweet, on April 11, Agrawal announced Musk would not be joining the board after all. On April 14, Twitter revealed in a securities filing that Musk had offered to buy the company outright for about $44 billion. After first trying to thwart the hostile takeover, Twitter ended up agreeing to the deal on April 25.
The text exchanges were included in redacted documents that Musk lawyers filed early Thursday after challenging a Twitter claim that they couldn't be made public because they contained sensitive information. Several of the “public versions” of those Twitter documents contain wholesale redactions and are almost entirely blacked out. The documents containing the Musk and Agrawal texts, by contrast, were not.
The collection of text messages also includes Musk's conversations with Jack Dorsey, a Twitter co-founder and former CEO. Dorsey was enthusiastic about Musk's involvement, telling him that while the board was “terrible,” Agrawal was an “incredible engineer.”
The texts also include Musk's opinions on Twitter with a host of people in his orbit, including podcaster Joe Rogan, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, venture capitalists and Musk's own brother.
While the lawyers tussle over which documents will be allowed as trial evidence, more witnesses are showing up for depositions.
Among those deposed Thursday was whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, a former Twitter security chief who testified to Congress earlier this month about what he described as Twitter's weak cyber defenses. Musk's legal team hopes Zatko's knowledge about Twitter's problems with fake and spam accounts will bolster Musk's key argument for terminating the deal.
Musk could be deposed as early as next week.
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O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
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Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
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A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
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B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
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A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.