Elon Musk Renews Plans to Buy Twitter for Originally Agreed Price

In yet another reversal, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has again agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share – as was initially planned. 

Twitter shares climbed 18% in value after the news dropped, following a brief pause in trading. 

• As reported by Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter claimed that Musk renewed his offer in a letter to Twitter. They asked not to be identified, as they were discussing confidential information. 
• Musk initially offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share – or roughly $44 billion – back in April. He cited a desire to make Twitter a “digital town square” and better respect the principles of free speech.
• He also vowed to cleanse the platform of its rampant spam and scam bot problem, which is especially common within the crypto community. 
• However, Musk later withdrew from the deal over fears that Twitter was misrepresenting the extent of its spam problem. The platform claimed in May that 95% of accounts were backed by real people.
• After requesting verification of these statistics, Musk said in a July filing that Twitter failed to provide information that didn’t come with strings attached or other features that made the information “minimally useful”.
• Despite Musk’s efforts, Twitter sued the billionaire shortly after to force him into following through. In fact, the original merger agreement included a provision that would let Twitter compel him to complete the deal. 
• Twitter later blamed Musk for contributing to shaky Q2 earnings numbers at the company by creating uncertainty around their deal in the first place. 
• As of 12:19 on Tuesday, Twitter’s stock traded for $47.93. 
• Last week, private messages Musk had shared with other billionaires – including Jack Dorsey – about his vision for Twitter emerged as part of his lawsuit with the company.