In another twist, Elon Musk can close the purchase of Twitter for the price initially agreed. The proposal would have been made in a confidential letter. The decision comes after the company sued the billionaire — Musk and Twitter would face each other in court from October 17.
It remains to be seen whether Twitter will accept the purchase or whether it will consider the proposal to be just a ploy by Musk to stop the lawsuit against him. The agreement provided for the payment of US$ 54.20 per share, totaling US$ 44 billion.
The information was obtained by Bloomberg with people close to the negotiation, who asked that their identities not be revealed. Neither Twitter nor Musk would comment on the matter.
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This story is recent and may be updated with more information as it becomes available.
Trading began in March, when information surfaced that Musk bought about 9% of Twitter’s shares. The billionaire turned down a seat on the company’s board and revealed plans to take control of the social network.
Soon after, he made the $44 billion proposal, and Twitter’s board accepted. From there, disagreements began.
Twitter purchase has accusations and lawsuit
Musk questioned the numbers of automatic and spam accounts presented by the social network. The entrepreneur claims that there are far more bots than Twitter admits, which would jeopardize the platform’s business in the long run.
As the billionaire no longer wanted to complete the purchase, Twitter went to court to force him to comply with the deal.
Musk, on the other hand, went on to use the testimony of a former employee of the company to show that there are more problems than imagined.
Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s former head of security, claimed that the company’s practices on matters such as security, disinformation and bots are far from the best possible.
In one of the most recent developments, the $44 billion sale of Twitter to Musk was approved by the company’s shareholders on Sept.
Process didn’t go well for Musk
Why did Musk decide to buy Twitter after so much fighting? One of the hypotheses is that he would likely lose the lawsuit. Some signs pointed to this.
One of them appeared this Tuesday (4) and involves Zatko. He made public accusations against Twitter in August and denied contact with Musk. However, Alex Spiro, one of the businessman’s lawyers, received an email from an anonymous ProtonMail account in May.
The message was from someone claiming to be a former Twitter executive in the areas of security, privacy and content moderation. This person offered information to Musk via other channels. Negotiations stopped in May.
Twitter and Musk were arguing in court over this email. The company wanted to be able to sift through more emails, text messages and documents; the entrepreneur’s team said that access to e-mails was enough.
The judge in the case, Kathaleen McCormick, backed Twitter, saying that Zatko’s testimony had not been assessed for credibility. She also raised questions about claims by Musk’s lawyers, including whether they had investigated the identity behind the anonymous email.
Ultimately, McCormick decided on a “middle ground” and authorized Twitter to request files and communications from some of the people involved in the case, in addition to doing a search of up to 15 terms.
With information: The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Verge.
https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/2022/10/04/elon-musk-pode-finalmente-comprar-o-twitter-pelo-preco-combinado/