X Hinted at Possible Deal Trouble in Talks With Ad Giant to Increase Spending

I have to say, threatening agencies with corrupt lawmakers stopping their inappropriate merger. by abusing your illegal power as an unappointed unelected government administrator who appears to be basically illegally running the government and holding power over the whole Republican Party is a new low even for Elon. An all new low for ad tech too, just when I thought it couldn't get much lower.

Imagine having power over the most militarily and economically powerful nation of the world and using it to force ad agencies to buy ads on Twitter. So low it bounced off the Earth's core.

A lawyer at advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group fielded a phone call in December from a lawyer at X.The message was clear, according to multiple people with knowledge of the conversation: Get your clients to spend more on Elon Musk’s social-media platform, or else.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino has made comments that seemed like similar warnings in conversations with Interpublic executives, according to people with knowledge of those talks.

Interpublic leaders interpreted the communications from X as reminders that the recently announced $13 billion deal to merge Interpublic with rival Omnicom Group OMC 0.23%increase; green up pointing triangle could be torpedoed, or at least slowed down, by the Trump administration, given Musk’s powerful role in the federal government, some of the people said. They also had a front-row seat to Musk’s continued criticism of advertisers that ditched X since he bought it in 2022, when it was known as Twitter.

Interpublic has recently signed a new annual deal with X for potential client spending, people familiar with the agreement said.