Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed his intention to purchase Twitter, according to an Oct. 3 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
“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,” Musk’s lawyers stated in a letter filed with the SEC.
“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.”
Twitter shares jumped 22 percent, to $52 per share, on the news.
Musk also sent a message on Oct. 3 to Twitter management that he would proceed with his original proposal to buy the tech firm for $54.20 per share, or $44 billion.
The news, first reported by Bloomberg, resulted in a temporary halt to trading of Twitter shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The development occurs as Musk and Twitter have been engaged in a months-long legal battle, and were scheduled to appear before a Delaware Chancery Court beginning on Oct. 17 as part of a five-day trial over Musk’s effort to terminate his buyout of the social media company.
Musk’s chief argument has been that Twitter misrepresented the true number of fake accounts and spam bots, which would render the website useless for advertisers. He contended that the prevalence of bots was much higher than Twitter’s disclosed figure of 5 percent.
Twitter immediately took Musk to court over his attempt to back out of the agreement.
Legal experts have called that attempt a futile endeavor because it would be difficult to argue that anything changed from when Musk proposed the acquisition to the time he tried to terminate the agreement.
By Andrew Mora
