Musk Abruptly Ends Twitter Feud By Renewing $44B Bid, Here's Why
Elon Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter back in April of this year for over $41 billion, or $54.20 per share. At the time of the proposal, the price represented a 54% premium over the day before Musk invested in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day his announcement was made. Since then, Musk and Twitter have been battling it out over the price and spam/fake accounts on the social media platform, as well as in court. Now it seems the deal may finally be finalized, as Twitter says Musk is willing to go through with the original deal of $54.20 per share.
At one point in May, Musk stated that he was putting the deal on hold because of spam bots. He argued that the social media company needed to give him data that supported the company's claims that spam/fake accounts actually made up less than 5% of the platform's users.
Musk scored a small victory in court, following a ruling by a judge that the tech billionaire had the right to view documents pertaining to Twitter's ex-general manager, Kayvon Bykpour. However, it seems the saga will end before the court will have the chance to rule on whether or not Musk will be forced to buy Twitter.
Musk posted a tweet of his own, saying buying the social media platform would accelerate his intention of building X, "the everything app." Some believe this is the reasoning behind his about face on the deal. Musk has expressed an admiration for WeChat, calling the app "great" during a town hall with Twitter employees in June. The billionaire has expressed his desire to get a billion people using Twitter.
"And I think that there's a real opportunity to create that," Musk expressed to Twitter employees. "You basically live on WeChat in China because it's so useful and so helpful to your daily life. And I think if we could achieve that, or even close to that with Twitter, it would be an immense success."
Musk evidently sent a letter to Twitter on Monday outlining his intention to proceed with the deal on the original terms as long as the Delaware judge stayed the court proceedings.
Someone familiar with the Twitter team told Reuters that at a court hearing on Tuesday morning the judge told the two sides to report back that evening. If the two sides do come to terms, the deal could close very soon, as Twitter has already received shareholder support for the sale.
