Signaling a possible end to a tortuous saga, Elon Musk agreed on Monday to buy Twitter at a price of $54.20 per share—the same deal he made last spring prior to backing out of the agreement.
Twitter stated on Tuesday afternoon that it intended to close the transaction; Bloomberg was first to report on the existence of the letter.
Shares in Twitter spiked more than 12 percent following the report before trading was halted.
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Musk outlined his new offer in a letter to Twitter, in which he also asked the Delaware Chancery Court to immediately stay his litigation with the company. Musk had been scheduled to sit for a deposition later this week, and his attorney Alex Spiro also faced an impending deadline to disclose interactions he may have had with Peiter Zatko, a former Twitter executive turned whistleblower.
The billionaire left himself room to continue litigation if the court doesn’t stay the proceedings, or if the transaction otherwise hits a snag.
Earlier on Tuesday, a current Twitter employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Beast that the company had not yet made any announcements internally.
“Ironically there's a bunch of presentations today about 2023 strategy,” she wrote, adding a facepalm emoji. The company later sent out a brief message to staffers outlining its intent to close the deal.
Musk and Twitter have been locked in litigation over the acquisition deal gone bad; a trial was scheduled to start later this month. The billionaire has argued that Twitter had not been transparent about the amount of spam on its platform.
In a note on Tuesday, Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities who tracks Twitter, said he was unsurprised by news that the billionaire may throw in the towel on his suit.
“This is a clear sign that Musk recognized heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning vs. [the] Twitter board was highly unlikely and this $44 billion deal was going to be completed one way or another.”
Musk, who has frequently tweeted about his battle against Twitter, did not immediately make a public statement about the news.
It remains possible that the billionaire doesn’t intend to go through with his new proposal, but is instead using the offer as a legal tactic.
Still, if a deal does materialize, the parties will be able to put their legal war to rest, which in addition to creating uncertainty about Twitter’s ownership, has also forced its employees to endure months of stress and volatility.
