Elon Musk Proposes Buying Twitter at Original Price

Facts

• Amid the ongoing legal battle between Elon Musk and Twitter over his attempt to back out of the agreement to purchase the platform, the billionaire reportedly offered to buy Twitter for his original price of $54.20 per share on Monday.
• Musk had initially agreed to take over the social media company in April but backed out over allegations that Twitter misrepresented the number of fake accounts on its platform. Twitter subsequently sued Musk, accusing him of violating his agreement. In response, the billionaire filed a countersuit.
• Twitter's stock jumped nearly 13% to around $48 after the news broke, with the New York Stock Exchange halting trades of its shares and listing "news pending" as the reason for the pause.
• With Musk reportedly alerting Twitter's lawyers to the offer late Monday night, the two sides allegedly met in a private Delaware Chancery Court on Tuesday morning to discuss an agreement.
• Due to the contentious battle between the two parties, Twitter has reportedly insisted that the Delaware court supervise the closing, with an unidentified source familiar with the matter saying the long-fought issue could come to a close within days.
• If the purchase is finalized, it's unclear what Musk's intentions for the company include. However, before he attempted to back out of the deal, he informed investors that his goal was to increase Twitter's daily users to 500M and revenue to $13.2B by 2025.

Sources: New York Times, FOX News, Chicago Tribune, and New York Post.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Dallas News. This latest development — which comes just two weeks before Twitter's lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial — is a blatant attempt to save face. Musk would likely lose his legal fight and be forced to finalize the original purchase price anyway, with potential penalties. After months of attacking Twitter in court and online, the billionaire has finally accepted that he must follow through with his agreement.
• Narrative B, as provided by WPR. First, Musk forced a billion-dollar company — that had no intention of selling — to accept his offer. Then, he tried to back out, leading to bombshell revelations regarding the inner workings of Twitter, before finally putting his offer back on the table. Though it's hard to predict anything related to this rollercoaster of a story, Musk may have been playing 4D chess this entire time.