In a dramatic turn of events, billionaire Elon Musk made another proposal Monday to purchase Twitter for $44 billion. Musk’s change of heart comes less than two weeks before the two sides were scheduled to square off in court.
According to the Associated Press, Twitter said it will close the transaction at $54.20 a share. There’s no indication that the company will drop a lawsuit that it filed against Musk several months ago when he announced that a deal to buy the company was off.
Musk contended that Twitter undercounted the number of fake bot accounts on its platform. Twitter said Musk acted in “bad faith” and accused him of backing out of the deal when the market started turning.
“I don’t think Twitter will give up its trial date on just Musk’s word — it’s going to need more certainty about closing,” Andrew Jennings, professor at Brooklyn Law School, told the AP.
In July, Twitter wrote that “having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play and having proposed and then signed a seller-friendly merger agreement, Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”
According to the New York Times, Musk is scheduled to be deposed for the upcoming trial Thursday and Friday in Austin, Texas.
Critics have speculated that if Musk does end up buying Twitter, he could reinstate former President Donald Trump’s banned account.
