CNN
—
Shares of Twitter have been halted twice, the second time on pending news, and are up about 13% in midday trading on Tuesday following reports that Elon Musk has proposed going ahead with his deal to buy the company at the price originally agreed at $54.20 per share.
Bloomberg and the Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Musk had sent a letter to Twitter proposing to complete the deal as originally signed, citing people familiar with the negotiations.
Representatives for Musk and Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The news comes as the two sides have been preparing to go to trial in two weeks over Musk’s attempt to back out of the $44 billion takeover deal, which Twitter had sued him to complete. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal was scheduled to be deposed by Musk’s lawyers on Monday, and Twitter’s lawyers had planned to depose Musk starting Thursday.
Such a deal could end a contentious months-long tug-of-war between Musk and Twitter that has caused widespread uncertainty among employees, investors and users of one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.
Twitter’s board of directors would likely agree to suspend the litigation to move forward with closing the deal, according to Josh White, an assistant professor of finance at Vanderbilt University.
“The very public saga has certainly taken a toll on them and on Twitter employees,” White said. “It is better for all parties to finish the deal and make a quick and smooth transition. I suspect it will close quickly.
The saga began in April when Musk revealed that he had become Twitter’s largest shareholder. Over the next few months, Musk accepted and then backed out of a bid to join Twitter’s board, threatened a hostile takeover of the company, signed a deal to buy the company, began raising concerns about bots on the platform, attempted to terminate Twitter sued him to honor the settlement and added claims from a Twitter whistleblower to his argument.
Musk initially moved to rescind the deal citing claims that the company had misstated the amount of spam and fake bot accounts on the platform. Twitter claimed that Musk had reneged on the deal and was using bots as a pretext to get out of a deal for which he had garnered buyer’s remorse after the general market crash, which also hurt Tesla stock and, by extension, personal wealth. by Musk.
Still, many legal experts have said that Twitter has a stronger argument going into court, and that Musk would face a significant burden in trying to prove that the company had made materially misleading statements in its securities filings or contract. negotiation.
The lawsuit was the last hurdle standing in the way of closing the deal, after Twitter shareholders voted last month to approve the deal. The deal was originally scheduled to close this month.
With news that the deal could end up closing, attention may turn back to what Musk’s control could mean for the social media platform.
Musk previously suggested a number of possible changes to Twitter, the biggest of which could be the return of former President Donald Trump to the platform and the removal of permanent account bans. Musk has also said that he wants Twitter to be more open to “free speech” and could change its content moderation policies.
