8:08 am, October 5, 2022
The ongoing saga surrounding Tesla boss Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter finally appears to be drawing to a close after the social media giant confirmed a fresh offer from the billionaire.
The website said in a statement that it intends to give the green light to the EV mogul’s proposal to buy the outfit for £47.23 ($54.20) per share.
The deal sees Twitter valued at around £38.3bn ($44bn) – the same price previously put forward by Musk before the drama surrounding the bid began to unfold.
A spokesperson for Twitter said: ‘We received the letter from the Musk parties which they have filed with the SEC. The intention of the company is to close the transaction at 54.20 dollars per share.’
Following the announcement, Twitter’s stock surged 22.2 per cent to £45.31 ($52).
How Musk’s Twitter takeover has unfolded
- Tesla boss Elon Musk buys 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter after criticism of social media platform
- Elon Musk launches £32bn bid to become outright owner of Twitter
- Tesla boss Elon Musk’s $43bn Twitter bid fended off by ‘poison pill’ defence strategy
- Twitter ‘is holding talks with Elon Musk to buy platform’
- Tesla boss Elon Musk agrees £34.5bn deal to buy Twitter after criticism of social media platform
- Elon Musk sells 4.4m shares in Tesla valued at around £3.2bn as he moves forward with Twitter purchase
- Elon Musk sells nearly £7bn of Tesla shares in a week and its market value tumbles
- Car dealers could soon be charged to use Twitter under new plans by Tesla boss Elon Musk
- Musk puts Twitter deal ‘temporarily on hold’ over number of spam accounts and shares tumble
- Elon Musk reaffirms commitment to Tesla amid concerns that Twitter deal is becoming a distraction
- Twitter shareholders file lawsuit against Tesla boss Elon Musk for trying to drive down stock price
- Musk backtracks on claim that Tesla needs to cut ten per cent of workforce and says ‘headcount will increase’
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatens to walk away from $44bn Twitter deal
- Tesla boss Elon Musk could be given access to raw Twitter data as takeover hangs in the balance
- Twitter wants shareholders to accept Elon Musk’s £35.8bn offer as Tesla boss faces multiple problems elsewhere
- Elon Musk faces legal action after saying he is ending Twitter acquisition
- Twitter users ‘will benefit from Elon Musk pulling out of deal to buy company’
- Elon Musk is sued by Twitter to force him to complete $44bn acquisition deal
- Judge says Musk-Twitter $44bn takeover row should go to trial in October
- Tesla boss Elon Musk says Twitter deal could move ahead with ‘bot’ information
- Elon Musk sells 7.92m shares in Tesla as Twitter lawsuit looms
Earlier this year, the Tesla founder offered to purchase the company but pulled out in July.
Lawyers for Musk said it was due to the platform ‘not complying with its contractual obligations’ surrounding the deal, namely giving him enough information to “make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform”.
Twitter said in response it was ‘committed to closing the transaction’ and launched legal action. Mr Musk later countersued.
A month later, in a published court document, Twitter accused Musk of ‘looking for an excuse’ to get out of the deal, with the firm calling his accusations ‘factually inaccurate, legally insufficient, and commercially irrelevant’.
The two sides have continued to tussle in the lead-up to the trial of the stalled takeover, which was due to heard by judges in the US later this month.
In late August, a former company executive at Twitter turned whistleblower, Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko, accused the microblogging website of having substantial security problems that place personal user data and potentially national security at risk.
In response, Twitter disputed the account, adding that there was a ‘false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies’.
The company added that he had been sacked in January for ‘ineffective leadership and poor performance’.
