Elon Musk has offered to move forward with a deal to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share after months of wrangling with the social media company, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows.
In the filing, dated Monday, Musk ‘s attorneys signaled his intent to continue to closing of the transaction, provided that the Delaware Chancery Court halt proceedings. The court is scheduled to hear from Musk and representatives of Twitter on Oct. 17 after company officials sued to force Musk to continue with the sale earlier this year, according to Bloomberg News.
In a statement obtained by The Washington Post, Twitter officials said they plan to accept the deal, although the newspaper noted that company officials remained wary that the letter might represent legal maneuvering on Musk’s behalf.
News of the offer caused Twitter shares to spike and prompted officials to halt trading of the company’s stock, The Associated Press reported. Shares jumped by about 13%, reaching $47.95, before trading stopped, according to the AP.
[ Twitter sues Elon Musk for trying to nix $44B buyout ]
The proposed deal came months after Musk put a hold on the sale, citing concerns over the number of spam bot accounts on the site. In a post on Twitter in May, Musk speculated that spam or fake accounts on Twitter could be much higher than the less than 5% claimed by the company.
He announced his intent to walk away from the deal in July, prompting the company to sue to force him to adhere to the merger agreement.
[ Elon Musk informs Twitter he is terminating proposed $44B acquisition; board digs in ]
Musk argued in July that he could nix the deal with Twitter because the company misled him about the number of real users on the platform and the security of its user data, Reuters reported. However, legal experts told the AP that Musk would be challenged to convince the court’s lead judge that there had been a change in facts since April that was big enough to justify tanking the deal.
“This is a clear sign that Musk recognized heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning vs. Twitter board was highly unlikely and this $44 billion deal was going to be completed one way or another,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to investors Tuesday, according to Reuters and the AP.
[ Elon Musk: Twitter deal ‘cannot move forward’ until company proves spam bot numbers ]
“Being forced to do the deal after a long and ugly court battle in Delaware was not an ideal scenario, and instead accepting this path and moving forward with the deal will save a massive legal headache.”
Twitter officials originally accepted Musk’s bid to buy the company in April. Last month, stockholders approved of the offer.