Billionaire Elon Musk is proposing to go ahead with his original $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, calling for an end to a lawsuit by the social media company.
Elon Musk, the chief executive of electric car maker Tesla, tweeted that buying Twitter would speed up his ambition to create an everything app called X.
The renewed offer comes ahead of a face-off between Elon Musk and Twitter in Delaware’s Court of Chancery on Oct. 17, in which the social media company was set to seek an order directing Elon Musk to close the deal for $44 billion.
Elon Musk sent a letter on Monday to Twitter saying he aims to proceed with the deal on the original terms if the Delaware judge stayed the proceedings. Twitter shareholders have already approved the offer from Elon Musk.
Twitter has received Elon Musk’s letter and he intended to close the deal at the original price of $54.20 per share, a spokesperson told Reuters. Twitter did not say whether it accepted Elon Musk’s new offer for offering for buying the social media company.
Elon Musk said in July he could walk away without penalty because the number of bot accounts was much higher than Twitter’s estimate of less than 5 percent of users. Bots are automated accounts, and their use can lead to overestimations of how many humans are on the service, which is important for advertising rates and the overall value of the service.
Twitter’s legal team on Sept. 27 said that scientists employed by Musk estimated the number of fake accounts on the platform at 5.3 percent and 11 percent.
