Musk teases X.com social media platform if Twitter deal's a no-go

(The Hill) — Elon Musk on Tuesday evening appeared to tease creating his own social media platform if he does not ultimately buy Twitter.

"Have you thought about creating your own social platform?" Tesla Owners Silicon Valley asked the billionaire on Twitter. "If Twitter deal doesn't come through."

"X.com," Musk responded.

In 1999, Musk co-founded an online financial services company with the same name alongside three other people. X.com merged in 2000 with Confinity, which developed the PayPal electronic payment system.

The domain for Musk's former company that he shared on Tuesday connects users to a page that displays a singular "x" on a blank background.

The tweet exchange comes as Musk battles Twitter in court over the Tesla CEO's attempt to pull out of a deal to buy the social media company.

Musk is attempting to exit the deal after accusing the platform of hosting a larger number of spam and fake accounts than it had disclosed.

After Twitter sued Musk to require him to follow through with the $44 billion deal, Musk countersued Twitter for fraud, breach of contract and violation of a securities law in Texas, arguing the company misled his team about its user base size.

Musk disclosed in regulatory filings on Tuesday that he sold nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla shares in recent days as the legal proceedings continue. Musk in April said he had no plans to sell further shares.

"Yes," Musk responded to a Twitter user on Tuesday evening when asked if he was done selling Tesla shares.

"In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don't come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock," Musk wrote.

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