Entrepreneur Elon Musk and his legal team indicated Thursday that Twitter is now rejecting his renewed $44 billion offer to buy the company, which comes as the two sides are tangled up in a court battle after Musk tried to back out of the purchase and Twitter decided to try to force him to acquire it.
Musk made the renewed proposal in a letter to Twitter executives earlier this week, which sent share prices surging by as much as 22% on the news.
Twitter had been battling Musk in court over his attempt to cancel the offer over a dispute about the platform’s true number of users. Musk had expressed concerns that the actual share of fake accounts on the platform could range as high as 33% rather than the company’s reported 5%, with a lower number of monetizable daily active users justifying a lower valuation. A trial to determine the status of the acquisition had been scheduled for October 17.
“Twitter will not take yes for an answer,” said Musk’s attorney, Edward Micheletti, in a legal filing addressing Twitter’s latest move rejecting Musk’s offer. “Astonishingly, they have insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with their stockholders’ interests.”
Musk responded to the news on Twitter, writing: “Plot twist!”
The Associated Press said that Twitter likely made the move because they are wanting to seek more assurances from Musk that he is serious and will not try to back out of the offer again.
Twitter attorneys had contested Musk’s rationale for rescinding the $44 billion deal by producing text messages he sent to Michael Grimes, an executive at investment bank Morgan Stanley, indicating that he was concerned about macroeconomic conditions stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Let’s slow down just a few days. Putin speech tomorrow is extremely important,” Musk said. “It won’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re heading into World War III.”
Kathaleen McCormick, the Delaware judge overseeing the merger, announced Thursday night that she was delaying the court proceedings by moving the original trial from October 17 to October 28 to give Musk the opportunity to close out the sale of the company first.
The AP later reported that Twitter was disputing Musk’s claim that the company rejected his renewed $44 billion offer.
After McCormick issued her ruling, Twitter doubled down on its insistence that it tends to go forward with letting Musk acquire the company.
“We look forward to closing the transaction at $54.20 by October 28th,” the company said.