Elon Musk on Monday sent a letter to Twitter proposing to follow through with his deal to buy the company at the originally agreed-upon price of $54.20 per share, according to a securities filing on Tuesday.
In the letter, Musk said he would proceed with the acquisition on the original terms, pending receipt of the debt financing for the deal and provided that the Delaware Chancery Court stay the litigation proceedings over Musk’s initial attempt to pull out of the deal and adjourn the upcoming trial over the dispute.
A Twitter spokesperson said in a statement that the company received Musk’s letter and reiterated its previous statement that the “intention of the Company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.”
Musk on Tuesday night tweeted: “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”
News of the letter was first reported by Bloomberg earlier on Tuesday. Twitter (TWTR) stock was halted twice, the second time for news pending. After the stock resumed trading, it was up more than 20%, topping $51 a share and approaching the agreed-upon deal price for the first time in months.
The news comes as the two sides have been preparing to head to trial in two weeks over Musk’s attempt to terminate of the $44 billion acquisition agreement, which Twitter had sued him to complete. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal had been set to be deposed by Musk’s lawyers on Monday, and Twitter’s lawyers had planned to depose Musk starting on Thursday.
It also follows the release on Friday of a trove of Musk’s personal text messages about the deal. The messages offered a look at the cast of Silicon Valley insiders and billionaires — from Larry Ellison to members of the Murdoch family — who contacted him to weigh in on and, in some cases, offer financing for the deal.
Such an agreement could bring to an end a contentious, months-long back and forth between Musk and Twitter that has caused massive uncertainty for employees, investors and users of one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.
The ball will now be in Twitter’s court to determine how to respond to Musk’s proposal.
