On Monday, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent a letter to Twitter executives proposing to buy the company at his original offer of $54.20 per share, or approximately $44 billion.
Following the letter, shares of Twitter soared 22% to $52 at the close in New York, according to Bloomberg News. The news comes after a monthslong court battle between Twitter and Musk over his attempt to cancel his original offer made in April due to Twitter allegedly misleading Musk about the platform’s true number of users.
Musk had alleged that the actual share of fake accounts could be as high as 33% instead of Twitter’s reported 5%, with a lower number of monetizable users supporting a lower valuation of the company.
“Musk formally quit the accord in July and Twitter sued him in Delaware Chancery Court to force him to go forward with the purchase,” Bloomberg News reported. “A trial had been scheduled to begin Oct. 17. The judge in Delaware on Tuesday asked both sides to come back to her with a proposal on how the case can now proceed. The options include having Twitter seek to dismiss the case or have her continue to retain jurisdiction until the deal closes, said a person familiar with the matter.”
In response to the letter, Twitter issued a statement on Tuesday indicating that they would move forward with the deal.
“Twitter issued this statement about today’s news: We received the letter from the Musk parties which they have filed with the SEC,” the company said in a statement. “The intention of the Company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.”
According to CNBC, the transaction could be completed as soon as the end of this week.
