NEW YORK: Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk (pix) has informed Twitter that he will go ahead with his agreement to purchase the social media platform, potentially averting a trial over his initial non-compliance with the deal, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“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 US$54.20 per share,“ Twitter said in a statement, reported Sputnik.
Later on Tuesday, Musk said his decision to follow through with the acquisition of Twitter is an accelerant to creating “X, the everything app.” He did not give any further explanation as to what “X” might be.
Twitter shares ended up almost 22 per cent on news that Musk will complete the deal.
The news came after Musk contemplated for months on whether to proceed with the deal. In September, Twitter shareholders approved during a special meeting Musk’s US$44 billion bid to buy the social media company.
Musk said he decided to abandon the acquisition of Twitter because he was concerned about the true number of spam accounts on the company’s platform. Twitter sued Musk for abandoning the deal, but Musk countersued.
In July, Musk’s legal team initially filed a notice to terminate the Twitter acquisition, citing the company’s alleged non-compliance with its contractual obligations, including its purported inability to provide the information needed to complete a comprehensive analysis of spam and fake accounts.
In August, his team filed another notice to Twitter to terminate the acquisition deal, seeking to use the allegations of the company’s former security chief about security flaws as an additional legal argument.-Bernama
