It's On Again: Musk Suggests Buying Twitter at Original Price

The monthslong battle over Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter has been massive in scale and drama. One of the tech industry’s biggest deals in recent years, it has captured the public’s imagination, with cinematic twists that have been closely followed even by people who have never written a tweet.

Now, according to The NY Times, Musk, in a surprise move, has added another plot turn. After months of trying to get out of a deal that he struck in April, the billionaire made a proposal on Monday night that could bring the acrimonious legal fight to an end.

Musk said he would do exactly what he said he would do in April: Acquire Twitter at $54.20 per share, according to regulatory filings made public on Tuesday.

Twitter, which sued Mr. Musk in July to force him to go through with the $44 billion deal, has yet to accept his new proposal and plans to add conditions to try to ensure that he doesn’t change his mind again.

In a short statement, Twitter said it had received Musk’s letter and reiterated the company’s intention to close the deal. Twitter may ask a court in Delaware, where it filed its suit, for protections that would force Mr. Musk to follow through with his new proposal, said three people familiar with the company’s plans, who were not authorized to speak publicly about them. The company could also demand that Mr. Musk pay interest on the deal price for the delays in completing the acquisition, one of those people added.

A deal would allow both sides to avoid a messy trial that was expected to start in two weeks in Delaware Chancery Court. 

Twitter has barely been profitable for most of its history and is dwarfed in size by other social media platforms like Facebook and the much younger TikTok. 

Icahn, Others Clean Up on Musk's Twitter About-Face

Musk’s decision to end his war with Twitter Inc. isn’t just a big win for the social-media company, but also for some big-name investors like Carl Icahn, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Icahn quietly amassed a Twitter stake of well over $500 million in the past few months and made a sizable profit Tuesday after the shares shot up on news that Musk offered to close his $44 billion purchase of the social-media giant on the original terms, according to people familiar with the matter.

Twitter shares jumped 22% to $52 Tuesday. Mr. Icahn paid in the mid-$30s a share for the stake, the people said, meaning the estimated profit for his Icahn Enterprises LP could exceed $250 million.

Other big-name investors including D.E. Shaw Group and Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC also placed bets on Twitter shares in recent months and could notch sizable gains of their own, reports The Wall Street Journal citing other people familiar with the matter.