Elon Musk U-turns, agrees to buy Twitter at initial $44B bid
Elon Musk finally reverses course and agrees to purchase Twitter for an initial $44 billion.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has agreed to pay $54.20 per share, the amount he promised to pay for the acquisition of the company in April, following a protracted legal dispute over the conditions of the purchase of the microblogging service Twitter.
The New York Times reported that Elon Musk unannouncedly suggested a settlement with Twitter that would put an end to their bitter legal spat.
According to an SEC filing, Mr. Musk wrote a letter to Twitter on Monday announcing his intention to complete the transaction and guaranteeing to pay the original cash he had agreed to on the day the sale went public in April.
A few weeks after agreeing to the deal, which valued Twitter at $44 billion, Mr. Musk tried to back out by formally informing the agreement’s termination in July.
However, after the Tesla CEO indicated his desire to postpone his planned acquisition of the microblogging site, Twitter approached the court in July and asked it to order Mr. Musk to finish the agreement.
Twitter had exaggerated the amount of “bots” using its service, according to Mr. Musk, who claimed he was violating the agreement. He claimed, together with his counsel, that the social networking business had deceived investors by filing false information with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Twitter responded, claiming that Musk’s allegations of fraud were untrue and based on a misperception of how the firm counts bots and phony accounts on its site.
Legal experts projected that Twitter will ask the Delaware court where its lawsuit was filed for more stringent measures to guarantee Mr. Musk follows through with his promise.
