| Elon Musk and Twitter on Tuesday afternoon confirmed that the Tesla CEO has offered to proceed with his $44 billion buyout of the social media company, reversing course yet again, Axios' Dan Primack and Sara Fischer write. Why it matters: This would preempt a trial that had been scheduled for October, tied to Musk's efforts to walk away from his original acquisition agreement. State of play: Twitter has not yet responded to the offer, which is conditioned on Musk receiving his debt financing and the Delaware Chancery Court issuing a stay in the case. - The company did, however, repeat its intention to complete the merger at $54.20 per share.
On the docket: Musk's original argument for terminating the merger was that Twitter allegedly had undercounted the number of bots, or fake accounts, on the platform. - He later amended his complaint to include claims from a Twitter whistleblower that the company misled regulators about its efforts to reduce spam and protect Twitter from security threats.
- There is no mention of bots or security in the letter sent last night to Twitter.
Be smart: One reading of Musk's about-face is that he's lost confidence in his legal case, having already experienced a series of procedural losses in Delaware Chancery Court. - Sources close to Musk recently told Axios that he knew there was a good chance he'd lose at trial.
Meanwhile, it comes one day after he drew the ire of Ukrainian officials for tweeting what he thought was the most likely outcome of Russia's invasion, Hope writes. - His reversal also comes after private text messages — released as part of court documents in his legal dispute with Twitter — revealed details about his relationships and those in his inner circle.
What we're watching: When the dust settles on the deal drama, the focus will return to Twitter's business challenges — which have only intensified due to slowing growth in the advertising market. Share this story. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.