Twitter has agreed — once again — to Elon Musk’s proposal to buy the company for $54.20 a share. In a statement, Twitter confirmed it had received Musk’s letter that “the intention of the Company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.”
The agreement follows months of legal drama after Musk tried to back out of his original agreement to buy the company for $44 billion this spring. The two sides were set to go to trial later this month as Twitter attempted to force Musk to keep up his end of the agreement. Musk had claimed Twitter had misled him about the number of bots on the platform, and had raised concerns about issues disclosed by the company’s former head of security who filed a whistleblower complaint against the company.
Twitter issued this statement about today’s news: 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.
— Twitter Investor Relations (@TwitterIR) October 4, 2022
But Musk, once again, abruptly reversed course on Tuesday, telling Twitter that he would be willing to proceed with the original terms of the deal. In the letter filed with the SEC, Musk’s lawyers say they will go ahead with the agreement first struck in April if Delaware Chancery Court will “adjourn the trial and all other proceedings related” to the ongoing lawsuit.
It’s not yet clear when the acquisition could actually close. Twitter’s shareholders have already voted to approve the deal, but both sides will now also need to wait for Delaware’s Chancery Court’s response.
Musk, who has said he intends to take Twitter private, could eventually bring dramatic changes to Twitter. He has publicly mused about opening sourcing the site’s algorithms and taking a more lax approach to content moderation. In messages to CEO Parag Agrawal, made public last week, he also stated that he wanted to “unwind permanent bans, except for spam accounts and those that explicitly advocate violence.”