In premarket trading, Twitter shares fell further, falling 2 percent.
The company said in a statement accompanying a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it was “committed to completing the transaction as quickly as possible on the agreed price and terms”. In the filing, explaining the background and rationale for the deal, Twitter said that “if the merger is not completed, and depending on the circumstances that cause the merger not to be completed, the price of our common stock could drop significantly. “
Mr. Musk, who also heads electric automaker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, has caused confusion over the status of the deal. Last Friday he tweeted that his purchase was from Twitter “temporarily on hold”‘ until he could get more details about the amount of spam and fake accounts on the platform. He later followed up that he still “dedicatedto the appointment.
How Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal Unfolded
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A blockbuster deal. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, put an end to what seemed an unlikely attempt by the famed mercurial billionaire to buy Twitter for about $44 billion. Here’s how the deal unfolded:
The first offer. Mr. Musk made an unsolicited offer of more than $40 billion for the influential social network, saying he wanted to turn Twitter into a private company and that he wanted people to speak more freely about the service.
Twitter executives have been targeted by Mr. musk.
on MondayTwitter CEO Parag Agrawal posted a lengthy thread describing how the company calculates the number of bots. He said the company shared an “overview of the estimation process with Elon a week ago”. Mr. Musk responded to the thread with a poo emoji.
Last month, Mr. Musk went after Twitter’s top attorney who oversees the platform’s content moderation policies. Mr. Musk’s supporters followed suit by posting a torrent of abuse on the company’s chief executive.
Mr. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Twitter declined to comment.
Stocks of tech companies have taken a beating since Mr. Musk first announced his takeover of Twitter earlier this month. Shares of Tesla, Musk’s main source of wealth, are down nearly 30 percent.
Renegotiating a deal wouldn’t be easy. In addition to a $1 billion cancellation fee, Mr. Musk’s deal with Twitter includes a “specific performance clause,” which gives the company the right to sue him and force him to complete the deal as long as the debt financing he has amassed is intact. stays .
But Mr. Musk has also caused very public headaches for Twitter. On the weekend he has tweeted that Twitter’s legal department had “called to complain” that he had violated a nondisclosure agreement discussing the size of the bot sample of 100. Musk’s deal with Twitter also includes a contempt clause that prohibits him from tweeting negatively about the transaction.
The two sides have thus far proceeded as if there was a deal. Teams for both sides held a previously scheduled meeting on Friday. (Twitter confirmed the meeting was “part of the transaction planning process.”) On Friday, Twitter chairman Bret Taylor tweeted: “We continue to keep our agreement.†
Mike Isaac contributed to the reporting.