Government is not investigating Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase
Federal authorities have no plans to open an investigation into Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter with help from foreign investors, according to two people aware of the matter, despite concerns from President Biden and the demands of a top Democratic senator worried about the social network’s international financial backers.
Musk’s purchase of the site had drawn scrutiny after reports that the deal provided special privileges to large foreign investors, including a Saudi prince’s holding company and a cryptocurrency exchange founded in
China. But at least for now, U.S. officials on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) do not believe they have jurisdiction to formally probe the deal, according to the two people who were briefed on the committee’s decision and spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect internal government deliberations.
The committee’s mandate is to examine acquisitions of U.S. companies by foreign owners; Musk is an American citizen. Though the $44 billion deal relied on $2.5 billion from foreign backers and granted some of them unusual privileges, including special access to Twitter user data, investigators do not appear to think the circumstances meet the criteria for federal intervention, the people said.
“They have not fully closed the door on it, but they are pretty sure they don’t have jurisdiction in this case,” one of the people briefed on the matter said.
Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen chairs the committee. A Treasury spokeswoman declined to comment.
Twitter officials did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Musk.