Elon Musk has proposed going through with his original deal to buy Twitter for a whopping $44 billion — a bid to avoid a court trial over the hotly contested agreement slated for later this month, sources told The Post.
The billionaire Tesla CEO is in talks for a settlement to acquire the social network for $54.20 per share — the same price he agreed to in April before saying in July he was pulling out of the deal, according to sources close to the talks.
Twitter shares spiked more than 13% to $48.13 immediately following an earlier report of the agreement by Bloomberg and were halted for pending news.
Musk sent a letter to Twitter with the offer, according to Bloomberg.
Twitter sued Musk over his refusal to go through with the deal in a trial that was set to open on Oct. 17. Musk was scheduled to be deposed by Twitter’s attorneys on Thursday and Friday this week, raising the prospect that the last-minute deal was made in part to avoid the deposition.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal was deposed on Monday, according to a source close to the situation.
An attorney for Musk declined to comment. Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Analysts who cover Twitter say that $54.20 is an astronomically high price to pay for the scandal-plagued social media site. Without Musk’s involvement, Twitter would be trading in the $20 range, analysts say.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
