Weeks before Elon Musk announced he was resuming the Twitter acquisition, a rep for Elon Musk had several discussions with the company about redoing the deal at a lower price, four people familiar with the matter said. said the person.
Musk asked for as much as a 30% discount, three people said. Twitter rejected the offer, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the meeting was confidential.
But last week, the debate narrowed to a discount of about 10%, allowing Musk to pay Twitter about $39.6 billion. Those negotiations ultimately did not move forward. His Twitter market cap as of Wednesday was at his $39.2 billion.
The meeting came weeks before a scheduled showdown in a Delaware court to decide whether Musk should go through with the $44 billion offer to buy Twitter that he started in April. . In July, he said he didn’t want to buy the social media company, citing spam problems out of his control. Twitter sued him to force the deal.
Fierce legal battle is Mr. Musk’s personal text message It has lured tech investors and celebrities into orbit, entrapped top Twitter executives, and fueled uncertainty about the company’s future.
Reaching an agreement would allow the two sides to avoid a messy public trial that would most likely feature testimony from key Twitter employees and Mr. Musk. It was supposed to be, but the parties agreed to postpone it, two people familiar with the matter said.
But discussions on the discount hadn’t progressed beyond the initial stages, and no term sheet had been prepared, said a person familiar with the matter. It is not clear why talks did not proceed.
Musk sent a letter to Twitter on Monday night, offering to pay the company’s initial costs in full.
Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, said the deal’s completion will depend on its ability to secure financing from banks that agreed to back April’s bid, which offered $54.20 a share. He said he was. Musk will have to pay a $1 billion split fee if the bank doesn’t keep its funding promises. He also asked Twitter to stop the lawsuit against him.
“The company’s intention is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share,” Twitter said in a statement Tuesday in response to Musk’s letter.
Twitter is exploring various options to add certainty to the deal. A source familiar with the negotiations said the courts would oversee the proceedings to ensure Musk followed through on his promises, and would require Musk to pay interest to cover any delays in the process.
The billionaire and the social media company’s representatives have been in talks since Twitter received the letter.
Kathleen McCormick, the judge overseeing the Twitter case, said in a legal document Wednesday that “neither party has filed any terms to stay this lawsuit, and neither party has sought to stay.” “Therefore, I will continue to move forward towards the trial set starting October 17th.”
Andrew Ross Sorkin When Lauren Hirsch contributed to the report.