At last, Elon Musk is buying Twitter

Finally, Elon Musk is buying Twitter. This was confirmed in a letter sent on Tuesday by Elon Musk and his representatives that he is going ahead with the $44 billion takeover bid after so many “interruptions”.

According to the letter by a representative of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Mike Ringler,

“On behalf of X Holdings I, Inc., X Holdings II, Inc. and Elon R. Musk (the “Musk Parties”), we write to notify you that the Musk Parties intend to proceed to closing of the transaction contemplated by the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement, on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth therein and pending receipt of the proceeds of the debt financing contemplated thereby, provided that the Delaware Chancery Court enter an immediate stay of the action, Twitter vs. Musk, et al. (C.A. No. 202-0613-KSJM) (the “Action”) and adjourn the trial and all other proceedings related thereto pending such closing or further order of the Court.

The Musk Parties provide this notice without admission of liability and without waiver of or prejudice to any of their rights, including their right to assert the defenses and counterclaims pending in the Action, including in the event the Action is not stayed, Twitter fails or refuses to comply with its obligations under the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement or if the transaction contemplated thereby otherwise fails to close.”

This was also confirmed on Twitter.

Both parties have been going back and forth about this transaction. The whole saga began in April 2022 when he offered to buy 100% stake in Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash amounting to $44 billion. Twitter initially tried to dissuade him but finally agreed to his bid.

In May 2022, he tried to pull out of the deal citing the issue of spam/fake accounts on the platform being more than 5%. Both parties were headed to court over the deal on the spam/fake accounts issue from October 17.

We are not quite sure why Elon Musk and his party decided to go ahead but it might be connected to the fact that some of his old text messages about the transaction have been made public. Last night Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick approved Twitter’s request to review texts from Musk’s inner circle related to a mysterious anonymous email that Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro received on May 6. According to Techcrunch, in the email, which was sent through ProtonMail, the sender identified themselves only as a former Twitter executive and asked Musk’s team to follow up on a different platform.

“While the tipster was anonymous, it certainly seems possible that the email was sent by former Twitter head of security Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who denied reaching out to Musk prior to going public with his whistleblower complaint in August. Musk’s team subpoenaed Zatko at the end of August, seeking testimony and documents that could make the case that revelations around security lapses at the company were concerns sufficient to kill the deal.”

Musk’s response to the change of heart is this tweet that “buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”

Musk had said back in August that he would launch a social media site called X if the Twitter plan fell through. Details about the new app are not yet clear but he does own X.com again, and a holding company by the same name.

Musk has already sold $15.4 billion worth of Tesla shares since agreeing to buy Twitter.