Elon Musk willing to buy Twitter again to end legal battle

Elon Musk has reportedly changed his mind about buying Twitter and is now willing to purchase the platform at the original price offered.

In a letter to the firm, the billionaire agreed to go ahead with the deal, weeks before both sides were due in court.

The Tesla CEO abandoned his bid for the company in July in a dispute over spam accounts, leading to a lawsuit filed by Twitter.

In the new letter, Musk’s attorneys have said he intends to move ahead and complete the transaction, “provided that the Delaware Chancery Court enter an immediate stay of the action, Twitter vs. Musk et al. and adjourn the trial”.

A spokesperson for Twitter said: “We received the letter from the Musk parties which they have filed with the SEC.

“The intention of the company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.”

Musk had originally agreed to pay $44bn – around £37m – for the firm prior to the deal breaking down, saying he believed changes were needed in order to help the site thrive and better support free speech.

In a letter, Musk's attorneys said he was willing to go through with the purchase to end the legal battle. — In a letter, Musk’s attorneys said he was willing to go through with the purchase to end the legal battle. U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

However, he walked away from the purchase after a dispute over “bot” accounts, saying the firm had “not provided its process for auditing the inclusion of spam and fake accounts,” despite his requests.

When the deal broke down, the social media platform filed a lawsuit accusing Musk of “trashing the company, disrupting its operations, destroying stockholder value, and walking away”.

The lawsuit also claimed that his real motivation for pulling out of the deal was the fall in Tesla’s stock price – which had contributed to a $100bn drop in his personal wealth since November last year.

Twitter has previously argued that only 5% of its 200 million users are “bot” accounts designed to manipulate information on the platform.

However Musk, who had promised to relax content restrictions and rid the social network of fraudulent users, said he believes the figure is actually closer to 20%.

He demanded proof of Twitter’s metric before the sale could proceed as planned in April but has alleged that information has not been forthcoming.

Those claims caused Twitter’s share price to fall to $50 in May – over $4 lower than its peak.