Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter have announced a plan to move forward with Musk’s original offer to purchase the company.
Back in July, Musk announced that he was terminating his $44 billion Twitter deal due to the company’s failure to provide information on spam accounts.
Musk’s lawyers said that Twitter failed or refused to respond to several requests for information about fake or spam accounts, which is essential to the company’s business performance.
“For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform,” said Musk’s law firm Skadden Arps.
Twitter’s chairman Bret Taylor said the social media company was prepared to take Musk to court over the deal.
“We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,” he tweeted after Musk backed out.
The new announcement comes just two weeks before an Oct. 17 trial was set to determine what would happen with the company.
Musk filed two letters with the Securities and Exchange Commission, one in July and one in August, attempting to terminate the deal because of bots and spam accounts.
A new letter filed with the SEC said that Musk will follow through on the $44 billion acquisition.
“The Musk Parties provide this notice without admission of liability and without waiver of or prejudice to any of their rights, including their right to assert the defenses and counterclaims pending in the Action, including in the event the Action is not stayed, Twitter fails or refuses to comply with its obligations under the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement or if the transaction contemplated thereby otherwise fails to close,” it added.
Twitter shares soared Tuesday afternoon after the announcement.
Musk intended to close the deal at the original $54.20 per share offer. After 4 p.m. on Tuesday, share price reached $52.00.
According to Reuters, trading of Twitter shares was temporarily suspended after the price surge.
Twitter has reportedly insisted that the Delaware court supervise the closing process in the following days.
In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson wrote “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 per share.”
Earlier Tuesday, Musk liked a tweet from a Bloomberg reporter with an image of a Tesla robot with the caption “Welcome to Twitter’s new CEO.”
He also tweeted “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”
