On October 4, Elon Musk took another u-turn and proposed to proceed with the original bid of $44 billion to buy Twitter Inc. The information was made available via security filings on Tuesday. The latest proposal called for an end to a lawsuit filed by the social media giant that could have forced Musk to pay irrespective of his desire to pay up or not.
There is a chance the lawsuit that is scheduled for a hearing on October 17 could damage not only Twitter’s brand reputation but also affect Musk’s reputation in the market for erratic behaviour. Notably, Musk had offered to buy Twitter in April and take it private. However, later he tried to back out owing to ‘improper disclosure of spam account or bot accounts on the social media platform’.
Reportedly, Musk sent a letter to Twitter on Monday expressing his intent to proceed with the original deal if the Delaware judge stayed the proceedings scheduled for October 17. Reuters quoted an unnamed source from the Twitter team saying that during a court hearing on October 4, the judge requested both sides to report by evening.
In a Tweet, Musk expressed his desire to move ahead with building the “everything app” called ‘X’. He said, “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” It is noteworthy that X.com was the first company he owned that was later renamed paypal.com, one of the most used payment apps across the world.
Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2022
BBC noted that a spokesperson for Twitter confirmed that the company received the proposal with the intention to close the transaction at $54.20 per share. The u-turn by Musk showed a positive sign for the Twitter shares’ price that has plunged drastically since Musk announced he was planning to step back from the deal.
Musk offered to buy Twitter in April
In April 2022, Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter at $44 billion and said he would like to take the company private. The deal was approved by the board of directors at Twitter. However, later Musk said that Twitter was allegedly holding back information about the spam accounts on the platform. Twitter, on the other hand, denied the allegations.
Musk announced that he was stepping back from the deal that led to a legal case filed by Twitter against him. Meanwhile, a whistleblower named Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko made shocking allegations against the social media platform and allegedly exposed the dark side of the company. He alleged that the Twitter employees have access to the personal information of all the users, and Twitter was not updating its outdated servers and computers, leading to a potential leak of information.
Notably, after a case was filed against Musk, he had said on a social media platform that via to court case, he would get the information about the spam accounts that Twitter was allegedly hiding all along.
