Elon Musk sent a proposal letter to buy Twitter for his original asking price of $54.20 per share, or roughly $44 billion, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange commission. The development was reported on earlier by Bloomberg.
The offer is predicated on Twitter ditching a legal battle with the Tesla and SpaceX founder set to commence Oct. 17 in Delaware Chancery Court. In a tweet shared via its official investor relations account, Twitter affirmed it had received the letter and intended to close the transaction at that price, but did not mention any plans regarding the lawsuit.
Musk, one of Twitter’s most-followed personalities, also addressed the news via his preferred platform, tweeting that the acquisition would be “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” Media watchers have interpreted this commentary as Musk expressing a desire to make Twitter into something comparable to apps like WeChat in China, serving as a hub for not just social interaction but also shopping, ride-hailing, banking and entertainment.
Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2022
Musk’s latest gesture creates another twist in a long and complicated saga that has dogged the social media platform since early in the year. In late April, the executive reached an agreement to acquire the company for $44 billion after weeks of hinting at a potential deal. Then, in May, he started getting cold feet and complaining about levels of bot activity on the app, believing Twitter’s internal analysis did not capture the full picture. Tech stocks were taking a dive at the time, leading to chatter that the entrepreneur was massively overpaying for an app that faces steep challenges around ad revenue growth amid shifting privacy mandates and a weak market for demand.
In July, Musk officially moved to back out of the deal, citing the bot issue as his primary concern. Twitter responded by filing a lawsuit against Musk to complete the acquisition at the agreed-upon price. Musk returning to his initial offer to sidestep a likely lengthy legal battle would mark an anti-climatic end to the rigmarole while leaving Twitter’s future uncertain.
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