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Elon Musk's bid to buy Twitter shows how messy mergers and acquisitions can get : The Indicator from Planet Money For the corporate engagement of Elon Musk and Twitter, the road to the chapel has been unusually rocky. So how are these deals supposed to go, anyway?

The Indicator from Planet Money

Mergers, acquisitions and Elon's "rude" proposal

Mergers, acquisitions and Elon's "rude" proposal

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Elon Musk's Twitter account with a Twitter logo in the background. Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images

Elon Musk's Twitter account with a Twitter logo in the background.

Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images

Will they or won't they? Corporate marriages — aka mergers and acquisitions — can come with challenges, but Elon Musk's attempt to buy Twitter takes the cake. It's been unpredictable and full of drama, with the groom threatening to walk away. So how are deals like this supposed to go?

We go through the traditional meet-cute to corporate nuptials with Matt Levine, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. And then, look at how the potential joining of Elon and Twitter has been a very different kind of courtship.

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