Elon Musk has changed his position in his legal battle with Twitter and is now seeking to acquire the firm for $44 billion once again. This comes only weeks before their scheduled trial date.
According to sources reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday, Musk altered tactics because he and his legal team believed they would be victorious at trial anyway.
After an expensive and humiliating struggle, he would have been compelled by a Delaware court to proceed with the sale had he lost.
According to Bloomberg’s sources, the judge overseeing the case is Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, who recently denied his plea to postpone the trial and who he thought may not find in his favor.
Within a few weeks, Musk would be the owner of the business if the sale goes through.
He has not made any public remarks on the new offer.
Instead, he tweeted on Tuesday about the failure of his internet satellites and begged for “help” from his fans.
As word of his offer spread and the stock price of the firm increased by 13% on Tuesday, trading of shares was suspended.
Musk’s first bid to purchase the business in April was for $44 billion, or 38% more than what the market estimated it to be worth at the time.
But after months of back and forth, he attempted to back out of the agreement in July, claiming that Twitter had failed to provide sufficient details regarding the number of spam and bot accounts that were active on the platform.
Twitter filed a lawsuit against him for trying to withdraw, and the two parties were scheduled to square off in a civil trial in a few short weeks.
Although it’s unknown what caused Musk to alter his mind, Tuesday’s new plan marks the conclusion of that disagreement.
He will most likely soon become the owner of the business, according to sources reported by CNBC.
It comes just after super agent Ari Emanuel, a friend of Musk’s, urged Twitter to settle with him before the court date.
Recently, Twitter board member Egon Durban received a message from Hollywood mogul Emanuel pleading with him to settle the conflict.
Musk and Durban, who is on the board of Endeavor, are also friends of Emanuel.
A surprise conclusion to the protracted conflict is signaled by Musk’s withdrawal from the legal dispute.
Musk said in April that he owned 9.2% of Twitter, making him the company’s biggest stakeholder.
Then, after publicly lamenting the company’s prejudice and suppression of free expression, he made the purchase proposal.
Following months of back-and-forth, Twitter staff had a mental breakdown at the prospect of working for the unpredictable Musk as their new boss.
The Tesla billionaire, though, said in July that he intended to withdraw from the agreement. He said that after demanding to see the number of active bot accounts on the website, Twitter turned him down.
Twitter then filed a lawsuit against him, alleging broad, careless mischief and asserting that he couldn’t have abruptly backed out of the agreement.
“Defendants’ information demands were intended from the beginning to attempt to kill the agreement,” the court said.
The company’s lawyers said in a filing in July that Musk’s ‘increasingly ridiculous demands reflect not a serious investigation of Twitter’s operations but a litigation-driven strategy to attempt to construct a record of noncooperation on Twitter’s side.
On October 17, a trial in Delaware was scheduled to begin.
Six months after Twitter’s long-serving CEO Jack Dorsey announced his resignation, Musk launched an erratic takeover bid.
In his stead, Parag Agrawal took over.
Musk was initially given a seat on the board of the current, publicly traded Twitter.
He and Agrawal exchanged amicable texts, and he seemed eager to enhance the website.
When his recommendations were rejected, he threatened to acquire Twitter and make it private in order to make the adjustments he thought the website needed.
Before tweeting about the website in April, he yelled at Agrawal in a text message, “This is a waste of time.”
The messages, which were supportive of Musk joining the board, were made public in court documents last week along with others by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Musk informed Agrawal on April 9 that “I’m not joining the board” and that the meeting was a waste of time.