Elon Musk proposes to buy Twitter for original offer price of $44 billion: Reports

Elon Musk has agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion, thus completing the deadlock set for months, multiple media reports revealed. Musk has reportedly proposed to pay $54.20 per share of the micro-blogging site, which he offered at the beginning of the deal a few months ago. This comes just a few days before the hearing of the trial scheduled for October 17 in Delaware Chancery Court to determine whether Musk should close the multi-billion dollar buyout. 

On April 14, Musk bought 9.1% of the company's shares worth $2.6 billion and offered to outright buy the social media platform for $44 billion. While Twitter accepted the acquisition on April 28, Musk pulled out of the deal in early July citing a large number of spam accounts and bots.

According to Bloomberg, Musk made the offer in a letter to people familiar with the matter, following which shares of the company spiked nearly 13% to $47.95 before trading stopped. Notably, the price being offered by Musk already has shareholder approval. 

Earlier in September, Musk’s legal team sought a delay in completing the acquisition citing the revelations made by Peiter Zatko, Twitter's former head of security, who blew the whistle on the company’s flawed data protection plan.

In addition to this, Musk’s argument of Twitter having over 20% of spam accounts on the platform has been the major reason why the deal never reached fruition. Besides, recent reports surfacing over the deal revealed that Musk was avoiding completing the buyout citing a potential World War III resulting from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. 

Earlier in August, the billionaire had accused Twitter of fraud in a countersuit over the acquisition saying the company held back necessary information and misled his team about its true user base, AP reported.

Image: AP