Elon Musk Performs U-Turn and Offers to Complete Twitter Acquisition

Elon Musk has performed a dramatic U-turn and is now offering to complete his proposed $44bn (£38bn) acquisition of Twitter, having previously stated his intention to walk away from the deal.

Lawyers for Musk confirmed in a court filing on Tuesday that the world’s richest man is prepared to go ahead with the deal under the original terms following months of legal drama.

The filing followed a report from Bloomberg on Tuesday that the Tesla CEO had written to Twitter offering to close the deal at the original $54.20 per share price, resulting in a temporary suspension of trading in the company’s stock as the price soared. The shares closed up 22.2% at $52.

Musk had been set to confront Twitter in court on October 17th, with experts warning he had little chance of succeeding in his bid to scrap the deal.

“We write to notify you that the Musk parties intend to proceed to closing of the transaction,” the notice filed by Musk’s lawyers with the Delaware chancery court said. The filing added that the adjournment of the Delaware trial and securing of debt financing are preconditions.

A statement from Twitter said: “The intention of the company is to close the transaction at $54.20”. No response was given to Musk’s about-turn.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had made the proposal to Twitter’s lawyers overnight on Monday and had filed a letter with the Delaware chancery court before an emergency hearing on the deal on Tuesday.