Elon Musk Signals He's Ready To Buy Twitter After All!

Is Elon Muskfinally agreeing to buy Twitter?

After a rollercoaster legal battle that played out in headlines for months, it looks like the Tesla CEO, 51, is finally ready to submit to his original agreement to buy Twitter for his initial offer of $54.20 per share.

Earlier this year, the SpaceX founder quietly began buying up shares of Twitter until he became the company’s then-largest shareholder. Although the company offered him a seat on the Board in exchange for his agreement not to buy any more shares, Musk declined the offer and later approached Twitter board chair Bret Taylor with a text message offering to buy the company for $54.20 per share.

Although the company initially tried to adopt a “poison pill” defense against the acquisition, they later decided to accept Musk’s offer and Musk began selling off shares of his electric car company in order to afford the $44 billion dollar purchase. However, it wasn’t long until Musk began tweeting that the deal was “on hold” and seemed to express hesitance about following through with the purchase.

That hesitancy then surfaced into action when Musk filed to “terminate” his agreement with the social media giant, claiming that they were in breach of their merger agreement by failing to disclose the accurate number of bots and spam accounts on the platform. Musk felt that the number of bot and spam accounts on the website was much higher than the five percent that Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal initially claimed.

Although his attorneys had originally fought for a 2023 court date, Twitter argued that waiting to next year could irreparably hurt the company’s shares and Judge McCormick agreed, scheduling a date in Delaware Chancery Court later this month.

However, the billionaire has since backed down from his initial termination request and is offering to buy Twitter at its original $54.20 price if a judge agrees to a stay of the trial before it begins.

On Tuesday afternoon, Deadline reported Twitter’s official statement, which was filed with the SEC.

“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,” the statement began.

“Gentlemen… we write to notify you that the Musk Parties intend to proceed to closing of the transaction contemplated by the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement, on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth therein and pending receipt of the proceeds of the debt financing contemplated thereby, provided that the Delaware Chancery Court enter an immediate stay of the action, Twitter vs. Musk, et al. (C.A. No. 202-0613-KSJM) (the “Action”) and adjourn the trial and all other proceedings related thereto pending such closing or further order of the Court.”

“The Musk Parties provide this notice without admission of liability and without waiver of or prejudice to any of their rights, including their right to assert the defenses and counterclaims pending in the Action, including in the event the Action is not stayed, Twitter fails or refuses to comply with its obligations under the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement or if the transaction contemplated thereby otherwise fails to close.”

As The Hollywood Reporter noted, company shareholders gathered together for a special meeting on Tuesday, September 13, to vote on whether or not they approved selling the company to Elon Musk despite his then-refusal to purchase the company.

In that meeting, Twitter shareholders approved selling the company to the South African-born entrepreneur for $54.20 per share, which Musk now seems to be agreeing to.

After investors heard that Musk was ready to signal that he was ready to follow through with the purchase agreement, shares of Twitter were up 13%. Despite being halted from trading at several points throughout the day, the stock managed to surge as high as 18%.