Well well well, how the turn tables. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues to have second thoughts about his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, the microblogging company has now issued a statement on the matter essentially saying, “No take backsies.”
“The board and Mr. Musk agreed to a transaction at $54.20 per share,” Twitter’s board said in a statement to The New York Times. “We believe this agreement is in the best interest of all shareholders. We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement.”
Musk has been making noises about potentially renegotiating his deal to buy Twitter for a week now, asking for proof that the number of spam accounts on the platform is indeed less than 5 percent. The billionaire claims his multi-billion dollar offer was based on this statistic from Twitter’s SEC filings being true, implying that the company’s value to him would be markedly different if it wasn’t.
As such, Musk has said he has put the deal “on hold” until these details are cleared up to his satisfaction. If they aren’t, it’s likely he will attempt to haggle Twitter down from the initially agreed sale price of $54.20 per share — if not back out altogether. Twitter’s share price was $38.32 at end of trade on Tuesday.
However, Twitter has reaffirmed its commitment to the sale and ensuring it is seen through, apparently of the attitude that Musk has touched it so he has to take it. It makes sense that Twitter would want to lock in the deal considering Musk agreed to pay over 140 percent of its current value.
Musk’s April bid to take over Twitter came with little preamble, jumping from a 9.2 percent stake straight to his first, only, and “best and final” offer for the whole thing within a few weeks — putting pressure on the company to accept the deal just as swiftly. It’s possible Musk may be regretting that now.
