Elon Musk reportedly offering to buy Twitter again
Elon Musk on Tuesday revived his offer to buy social networking site Twitter for $44bn, after previously attempting to back out of the high-profile deal.
The Tesla billionaire proposed the price, which equals the original valuation of $54.20 a share, in a letter to Twitter filed on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In the letter, his layers stated that Mr Musk and his backers “intend to proceed to closing of the transaction contemplated by the April 25, 2022, merger agreement, on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth therein.”
Twitter confirmed that it had received the letter from Mr Musk and stated that it intended to close the deal at the original price, without commenting on how it would respond to him.
Mr Musk broke his silence on the deal on Twitter late Tuesday, writing: “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”. He added that buying Twitter “accelerates X by 3 to 5 years”.
In July, Twitter sued Mr Musk for what it said was his “wrongful” attempt to cancel his offer, a case that may force the entrepreneur into acquiring the company.
Without an agreement, proceedings in the case are set to begin within days, with Mr Musk scheduled to be deposed in Texas later this week.
Twitter accused Musk of dodging deposition because of Covid risk
Lawyers for twitter say that Mr Musk dodged his deposition in their lawsuit against him on 28 September, because he cited the interviewing attorney had been exposed to the virus four days earlier.
Details of the incident have been made public in the latest documents for the trial, which is still slated to go ahead in the Delaware Court of Chancery on 17 October, despite Mr Murk’s renewed attempt to buy the company for $44bn.
Mr Musk’s deposition was moved to this Thursday and Friday, although it is unclear if it will now go through as a deal could be announced at any time.
Private equity firm no longer involved with Musk’s Twitter bid
Private equity firm Apollo Global Management is no longer involved with Elon Musk’s $44bn Twitter purchase, according to Reuters.
The New York-based company was set to provide $1bn of the fiancing for the Tesla CEO’s bid for the social media platform, but is reportedly no longer in talks with the billionaire.
Apollo declined to comment to the news organisation.
ICYMI: What is X.com?
X.com simply points to a website that shows the letter x, and nothing more. But it has long been owned by Mr Musk, who has used it for a variety of purposes.
Originally, X.com was an online bank that was co-founded by Mr Musk and would go on to become part of PayPal. The branding was eventually lost in a series of mergers in the early 2000s.
PayPal originally kept ownership of the X.com domain name, but sold it to Mr Musk in 2017. He said that he had bought it because of its “sentimental value”.
Since then, it has largely stayed dormant. While it has occasionally been used for marketing campaigns – such as directing visitors to a hat sale on another website – it has largely just shown that single “x”.
Mr Musk gave no indication of how that X.com website would look, or even a firm commitment that it would launch.
ICYMI: Elon Musk has long-since hinted that X could be a social media site.
In a thread of posts about that eventuality, one user asked whether Mr Musk had planned to launch his own social network if he is successful in escaping the deal. It is unclear how that will now tie in if Mr Musk goes through with the deal.
Elon Musk could launch his own social network – X.com – if his deal to buy Twitter collapses, he has hinted.
Elon Musk’s Twitter trial still set to go ahead, court states
“The parties have not filed a stipulation to stay this action, nor has any party moved for a stay. I, therefore, continue to press on toward our trial set to begin on October 17, 2022,” stated Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick on Wednesday.
Musk will be ‘fairly distracted’ running Twitter, says Wall Street analyst
Mr Musk may have his attention on completing his $44bn takeover of Twitter, but he also runs Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Company.
“Near-term, I feel Musk, if this deal actually happens, needs to figure out the top-level, C-level exec team that they need to have in place,” Rohit Kulkarni, senior analyst at MKM Partners, told Yahoo Finance Live.
“Until then, I think it’s fair to say he will be fairly distracted with probably putting more time behind Twitter and putting less time behind other things.”
An aerial view of Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory on March 29, 2021 in Shanghai, China.
(Getty Images)
Musk and Twitter in negotiations to complete deal, says report
The Wall Street Journal says that the billionaire and the social media platform are currently in negotiations to complete the $44bn purchase and a person familiar with the situation says that the parties hope to have a deal done today.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launches four people to ISS
Elon Musk may have his eye on closing a deal for Twitter, but the Crew-5 mission on Wednesday became SpaceX’s fifth operational crew launch for Nasa to date and their eighth human flight in the last two years.
“That was a smooth ride uphill,” NASA astronaut and Crew-5 commander Nicole Mann said after the spacecraft reached orbit.
(Getty Images)
“Virtually every Twitter employee I’ve spoken to in the last six months has told me that he or she plans to leave if Mr. Musk takes over”, the New York Times’ Kevin Roose writes.
Parag Agrawal, the current head of Twitter, has claimed that a “large silent majority” of employees supported Mr. Musk’s vision - however, Mr Agrawal will likely have to step down when Mr Musk takes over, and text messages suggest he and Mr Musk do not get on.
Many employees were expressing concerns on Blind, an anonymous private forum popular among Twitter employees.
The reaction, according to CNN, was overwhelmingly negative. “Cue the layoffs,” one comment read.
Other employees were concerned that Mr Musk would roll back Twitter’s benefits package, including the severance offered to departing employees.
Mr Musk had previously said that Twitter’s costs were too high, amid an economic downturn across the United States and one that has stopped hiring among big tech companies.
