Elon Musk proposed to proceed with a plan to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share on Tuesday, paving the way for completing his $44 billion takeover of the company and avoiding continuing a lengthy legal struggle.
Musk agreed to buy Twitter for that price in April before trying to back out in July, saying the social media company deceived him about the number of fake accounts, or “bots,” on the network. Twitter then sued Musk to compel him to finish the transaction, with the case set to trial in Delaware on October 17.
Twitter’s General Counsel Sean Edgett stated that the company aimed to conclude the deal with Musk at $54.20 per share.
Twitter shares rose earlier Tuesday after Bloomberg News reported that Musk had proposed to buy the company on the original terms, but trading was paused briefly shortly after midday. Later that day, a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission appeared to confirm the news of Musk’s offer letter, and Twitter’s shares jumped more than 21%.
According to the planned deal, Twitter will become a private company solely controlled by Musk.
At a September meeting, Twitter shareholders approved Musk’s $44 billion bid, which appears to have cleared the path for the deal to be completed.
The revelation comes less than a week after hundreds of Musk’s text messages were made public as evidence in Twitter’s lawsuit. Some indicated that he was aware of the platform’s problem with fake accounts before finalizing the acquisition.
Some observers claimed that Musk would have difficulty convincing the Delaware court that he had been misled about bots, given that Musk relinquished his right to undertake due diligence on the company in April.
Musk’s ambitions for Twitter are unknown. However, he has previously stated that Twitter will restrict less political speech, “defeat” spam bots, and “open source” its ranking algorithms under his ownership.
