How much lawyers are worth, Twitter edition

By the numbers: On Friday, July 8, 2022, Twitter shares closed at $36.81, which meant that the market valued the company at $30 billion — a $14 billion discount to the amount that Musk had promised to pay for it.

• That weekend, Twitter hired Wachtell to fight Musk's lawsuits and to ensure that he paid the full $44 billion.
• Because Wachtell was successful in doing so, Twitter's shareholders saw the value of their shares rise by $14 billion. The $90 million fee to Wachtell represents about 0.6% of the increase in value the law firm ensured.

The bottom line: It's easy to say with hindsight that Musk was going to have to pay the full amount all along. But that's not what the market believed before Wachtell was hired.