Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s offer to purchase the company at $44 billion. The deal is expected to close in the next few weeks.
DailyMail.com was contacted by a spokesperson for the company on Tuesday afternoon. They said that they received the Musk party’s letter, which had been filed with the SEC.
“The Company intends to close the transaction for $54.20 per Share.”
Musk filed a letter to the SEC last night confirming that he intended to purchase the company for the $44 billion price he originally proposed.
The bombastic billionaire made a surprise U-turn, but it was motivated by the fear of being forced to purchase the company in court.
Musk tried to cancel the Twitter deal by claiming that the company was concealing how many spam accounts were on the site.
Twitter sued him in court to stop the takeover.
Musk was recently denied a request by Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick to defer proceedings.
Bloomberg quoted sources Tuesday as saying that Bloomberg feared she would side with Twitter regardless and force her to buy Twitter after an embarrassing trial.
Musk’s texts with his well-known friends concerning the deal have been made public by the court docket.
Musk sent an email to Twitter on Tuesday morning proposing that he buys the company for $54.20 per Share – which was lower than his initial offer
He did not make any public comments about this offer. He instead tweeted that his satellite internet wasn’t making any money Tuesday, and asked for support from his followers.
Musk could now be expected to buy the company in a matter weeks.
He did not speak publicly on the offer.
Instead, he took to Twitter about how his internet satellites were not earning money Tuesday afternoon and asked his followers for their support.
Trades in shares were stopped Tuesday after news about his offer was made. It drove the stock price up by 13%
Musk originally offered $44billion to acquire the company, which is 38 percent less than what it was valued by the market at the time.
After months of back-and-forth, he attempted to renegotiate the agreement in July. He cited Twitter’s refusal to provide enough data about the number of bot and spam accounts that were present on the site.
Twitter sued him because he tried to back out. The two sides were to contest it at a civil court in just weeks.
The new Tuesday proposal signifies an end of that conflict. However, it is not known what made Musk change his mind.
He now is likely to own the company within days, sources cited by CNBC said.
This comes just days after Ari Emanuel (a super agent and one of Musk’s friends) urged Twitter to reach a deal with him before the court date.
Emanuel, the Hollywood superstar, reached out to Egon Durban (a member of Twitter’s board) recently in an effort to resolve the matter.
Musk and Durban are friends of Emanuel, who also sits on his board at Endeavor.
Musk’s exit from the court battle marks an abrupt end to months-long story.
Musk declared that he owned 9.2 per cent of Twitter in April.
He then proposed buying he company, speaking publicly about how tired he’d become with its bias and its squashing of free speech.
Musk feared Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, who recently rejected his request to delay the trial, would not rule in his favor, according to Bloomberg
There was much to do and lots of toeing andfroing. Twitter employees had a panic attack at the idea of Musk, unpredictable and their next boss.
However, Tesla’s billionaire announced in July that he was withdrawing from the agreement. According to him, he had asked for information about how many bot accounts were currently active on Twitter. Twitter refused.
Twitter sued him. He claimed that he was unable to cancel the deal at once and accused him general recklessness.
‘From the outset, defendants’ information requests were designed to try to tank the deal.
‘Musk’s increasingly outlandish requests reflect not a genuine examination of Twitter’s processes but a litigation-driven campaign to try to create a record of noncooperation on Twitter’s part,’ the company’s attorneys said in a filing in July.
Each side was due to stand trial in Delaware on Oct 17.
Musk’s chaotic takeover bid came six months after Jack Dorsey (Twitter’s long-serving CEO) announced that he would be stepping down.
Parag Agrawal replaced him.
In leaked documents, Musk said that Jack Dorsey was the former CEO of Twitter. According to him, ‘An entirely new platform is required. This cannot be a business. This is what I did.
Agrawal and Musk were at odds in text messages from April 9, (above). Musk was eager to become a board member and had made suggestions about how the site could be improved. After being ignored, Musk said that he would offer to privatize the company and declare it a waste of time.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s founder (left), tried for Musk to join the board of directors at least one year ago but lost his bid after facing resistance from the board. He even offered to help Musk and Parag Agrawal, the current CEO of Twitter (right), in settling their differences.
Musk was first invited on to the board of current, publicly traded Twitter.
Agrawal exchanged text messages with him and appeared eager to improve the site.
He then threatened to take over Twitter to make the necessary changes.
Agrawal fumed that Agrawal was wasting his time in a text message in April, before he posted about the site on Twitter.
Court filings revealed the texts last week along with other documents by Jack Dorsey who had been enthusiastic about Musk joining board.
Musk said to Agrawal, “I am not joining the board. It is a waste of my time,” on April 9th.