Endeavor Group CEO Ari Emanuel seeks end to Elon Musk-Twitter lawsuit

Endeavor Holding Group CEO Ari Emanuel is reportedly seeking a settlement in the ongoing lawsuit between Twitter and Elon Musk, as Musk's personal texts reveal his communications ahead of his initial buyout proposal.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Talent agent and Endeavor Group CEO Ari Emanuel pushing for a settlement between Elon Musk and Twitter. Twitter shares jumping today, up just around 3%. Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley joins us now with more. Dan, another day, some more info here on this Elon Musk, Twitter saga. What do you make of this newest development with Ari pushing for the deal?

DAN HOWLEY: Saga, yeah, I think that's probably the nicest way to put it. It is interesting. Look, you know, Ari has this kind of relationship on both sides with Musk, with members of Twitter's board, and obviously, trying to get some kind of reconciliation between the two. I don't necessarily know if that's going to work, though. I don't think from everything that Musk seems to have done, he's throwing everything at the wall to try to get out of this agreement to purchase Twitter for $44 billion.

You know, I mean, he's asking the judge to be able to get more access to Twitter's information, for Twitter to bring forward more information. The judge just denied that in a recent ruling. And so, you know, I don't know how much this will actually help and maybe turn it into an agreement. To me, it seems as though, eventually, Musk is either going to be forced to buy this or somehow back out. I don't see an agreement going where he can become CEO, and everything's hunky dory. I just-- I don't think that's going to happen.

DAVE BRIGGS: No matter how powerful Ari Emanuel is or how much time they spend on a boat, it just seems like a non-sequitur here.

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, [INAUDIBLE] together, yeah.

DAVE BRIGGS: Those are some great photos, which I wish we could discuss. But the text messages between Elon and Jack Dorsey and several others, Parag Agrawal, the CEO of Twitter, have been fantastic. What's been your biggest takeaway, though, from the exchanges that are both juicy and really pretty substantive about the inner workings of this attempted takeover?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, it's bizarre. I mean, we have this tweet up here. You know, frankly, I hate doing management stuff. I kind of don't think I should be the boss of anyone, but I love helping solve technical product design problems. This is Elon Musk. He's the CEO of Tesla. He runs SpaceX. He's the boring company--

DAVE BRIGGS: Richest man of the world.

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, the guy really is the boss of a lot of people. I don't know where that comes from. There's got to be some kind of disconnect. But, you know, I mean, these text messages are just bizarre, the way it seems as though it's normal conversations. But it does give you kind of the behind the scenes look at how these kinds of deals come forward.

The-- I wish we got kind of a better look at the conversation that was had-- I think there was a Google Meet with Parag Agrawal, and then Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey, where things seem to have gone sideways at that point. And then afterwards, Dorsey had texted Musk back, saying, at least, it's clear that you two can't work together. So there was clearly something-- we're missing that piece as to why it happened.

But they definitely don't like each other-- Elon Musk sending that childish poop emoji to Agrawal. So, you know, I mean, it seems as though that this is just going to come down to whatever we get out of that chancellory court.

DAVE BRIGGS: If there's one you hear about, real quickly, it seems like it might be the one that acknowledged there are problems with the bots. And that's why he wanted to take the company private. And if I'm a judge in that chancellory court, I want to discuss that. When you had these concerns, why didn't you do your due diligence?

SEANA SMITH: And it would make it harder--

DAVE BRIGGS: Why did you waive it?

SEANA SMITH: --for Musk, then, to back out.

DAN HOWLEY: Rgiht. He specifically says that it's difficult to do that as a private company. It would be-- as a public company, it's easier to be private. And so you knew this. You knew this going in. There were all these issues with bots. I mean--

DAVE BRIGGS: And that you waived due diligence.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, Musk, sorry, I mean here. All right, Dan Howley, thanks so much for hopping on set with us. Have a great weekend.