In a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk has agreed to go ahead with his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter.
The surprise reversal comes just weeks before the two sides were due in court. The news, based on anonymous sources, was first reported by Bloomberg News.
Musk’s argument for winning the case — and thus walking away from the deal — has largely rested on his allegation that Twitter misrepresented how it measures the magnitude of “spam bot” accounts that are useless to advertisers.
In a letter to the firm, Musk agreed to pay the price he offered months ago before trying to quit the deal.
In the letter, attorneys for Musk said he intended to move ahead to complete the transaction, pending receipt of the financing, and asked to end the legal fight.
Musk offered to buy the San Francisco company at $54.20. Shares jumped nearly 13 percent to $47.95 before trading was halted.
Musk, a prolific Twitter user with more than 100 million followers, first offered to buy the firm in April. The agreement valued the social media platform at roughly $44bn.
At the time the billionaire, known for his impulsive style, said he wanted to clean up spam accounts on the platform and preserve it as a venue for free speech.
But he balked at the purchase just a few weeks later, citing concerns that the number of fake accounts on the platform was higher than Twitter claimed.
Twitter denied the accusations, arguing that Musk – the world’s richest person with a net worth of more than $220bn – wanted out because he was worried about the price.
