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Elon Musk will go through with his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
According to an SEC filing, Musk’s team sent a letter to Twitter Monday saying that the Tesla CEO intends 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.” In the filing, Musk also asks for a stay of action in Twitter’s legal proceedings against him and for an adjournment of the trial.
Twitter responded Tuesday saying it also intends to proceed with the sale.
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“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 company said in a statement.
Bloomberg first reported that Musk sent the letter to Twitter offering to buy the social media company at $54.20 a share, the original share price Musk agreed to in April. Though Musk signed a contract agreeing to those terms, the billionaire later tried to back out of the deal, citing an unaccounted for number of spam accounts on the platform, among other matters.
This led to a lawsuit between Twitter and Musk, in which the social media company sued to enforce the original terms of the deal. The case, based in the Delaware Court of Chancery, was scheduled to begin a five-day trial, starting Oct. 17.
Shareholders voted in September to approval the sale of the company to Musk.
Shares of Twitter soared 22 percent Tuesday afternoon and was briefly halted twice during trading to teh the letter and earlier reports of it. After surging 22 percent, the stock reached $51.99, higher than it has closed at in several months, but still below Musk’s takeover price.
Still, agreeing to the original terms of the deal would save Musk from the troubles and costs of a trial, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote Tuesday, adding that he sees “minimal regulatory risk” in the deal.
“This is a clear sign that Musk recognized heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning vs. Twitter board was highly unlikely and this $44 billion deal was going to be completed one way or another. Being forced to do the deal after a long and ugly court battle in Delaware was not an ideal scenario and instead accepting this path and moving forward with the deal will save a massive legal headache,” Ives wrote.
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