Elon Musk now wants to go through with his original offer to buy Twitter for the previously agreed upon price.
The legal team for the billionaire Tesla CEO sent a letter to Twitter Monday, which could put an end to the knock-down, drag-out legal fight over the merger that he tried to abandon in July.
The news, first reported by Bloomberg, sent shares of the struggling social media company soaring before the Nasdaq halted trading for a few hours. Twitter stock ended the day up 22%.
Musk agreed in April to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion, but then tried to back out of the deal after the company’s value sank, along with other tech stocks and the broader market.
Twitter sued to force Musk to abide by the deal. A trial is scheduled to begin in less than two weeks. It’s now up to the company to accept Musk’s renewed offer or force the billionaire to go to court in an effort to seal the deal.
In the letter, Musk’s legal team makes clear that the offer is good only if Twitter drops its lawsuit. In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson gave little clue about which direction the company would take.
“We received the letter from the Musk parties which they have filed with the SEC. The intention of the Company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share,” they said.
The two sides are discussing how to drop the litigation, while guaranteeing that the deal will be completed, according to a person close to the talks.
Musk and Twitter have been at odds almost since Musk first revealed his interest in the company in early April. In the course of just a few months, Musk went from being Twitter’s largest individual shareholder to would-be board member to unsolicited bidder to unwilling buyer.
Twitter, which never put itself up for sale in the first place, found itself in the awkward position of trying to force Musk to buy it, even as it acknowledged the specter of his ownership was causing disruption to its already struggling business.
Along the way, Musk has used his Twitter account – which now boasts nearly 108 million followers – to mock the company, critique its products, attack its executives and keep the world guessing about what he’d do next.
The billionaire began buying Twitter shares in January. By spring, he’d become its biggest individual shareholder, but delayed notifying regulators or the public until early April. At that point, he told Twitter he saw three options: join its board, buy the company and take it private, or start a competing social network, according to Twitter’s lawsuit.
