The turbulent saga of Elon Musk’s frequent Twitter buyout came to a conclusion on Tuesday, when the CEO of Mercurial Tesla made an offer to buy the company at what was originally priced at $44 billion. Musk made the offer in a letter to Twitter that the company disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. This came less than two weeks before the trial between the two sides was about to begin in Delaware. In a statement, Twitter said it intends to close the transaction at $54.20 per share after receiving the letter from Musk. Trading in Twitter stock, which was halted for most of the day pending news, resumed trading late Tuesday and closed 22% higher at $52. Musk’s proposal is the latest twist in a high-profile saga involving the world’s richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms. Much of the drama has played out on Twitter itself, with Musk – who has more than 100 million followers – lamenting that the company has failed to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech. Musk’s attorney wrote a letter Monday and disclosed by Twitter in a securities filing that Musk would close the merger signed in April, provided the Delaware Chancery Court files an “immediate stay” on Twitter’s lawsuit against him and begins in October. postpone the trial. 17. By completing the deal, Musk essentially gave Twitter what he was demanding from the court _ “typical performance” of the contract with Musk, meaning he would have to go through with the purchase at the original price. The contract signed by Musk also carries a breakup fee of $1 billion. Columbia University law professor Eric Talley said he was not surprised by Musk’s change, especially ahead of a scheduled statement from Musk by Twitter lawyers beginning Thursday that was “not going to be pleasant.” “On the legal merits, his case did not appear to be that strong,” Talley said. “It looked like a very simple buyer’s remorse case.” Tally said that if Musk loses the case, the judge could not only force him to close the deal, but also make interest payments, which would have increased its cost. Tally is surprised that Musk isn’t trying to renegotiate the deal. Tally said that even a modest price reduction gave Musk a “moral victory” and the ability to say he got something out of a long dispute. Neither Twitter nor Musk’s lawyers responded to requests for comment on Tuesday. Musk has been trying to back out of the deal for several months after he signed on to buy the San Francisco company in April. Shareholders have already approved the sale, and legal experts say Musk faced a major challenge defending Twitter from the lawsuit, which was filed in July. Musk claimed that Twitter underestimated the number of fake accounts on its platform, and Twitter sued when Musk announced the deal was closed. Musk’s argument rested largely on allegations that Twitter misrepresented how it measures the magnitude of “spam bot” accounts that are useless to advertisers. Most legal experts agree that he faced an uphill battle to convince the court’s chief justice, Chancellor Kathleen St. Jude McCormick, that something had changed since the April merger agreement that ended the deal. justifies. Legal experts say Musk may have guessed he would lose. Ann Lipton, an associate law professor at Tulane University, said that things haven’t been going well for her in court recently, with the judge ruling more frequently in cases of evidence in Twitter’s favor. The judge rejected several of Musk’s search requests, Lipton said. It’s also possible that Musk’s co-investors in the deal are starting to panic about how the matter is progressing, she said. Musk’s main argument for ending the deal — that Twitter was misrepresenting how it measured its “spam bot” problem — also didn’t look good because Twitter was trying to strengthen third-party data scientists. was working to separate Musk’s efforts. his concerns. Colombia’s Tally said it would insist on Musk putting the money into an escrow account until the deal is completed. The tally suggested that such an account may contain cash and/or Twitter shares, as a goodwill gesture by Musk. Mysteriously, neither Musk nor Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal have written anything about the deal on Twitter, where several developments of the controversy have been broadcast. Several of Musk’s tweets over the past 24 hours are about a divisive proposal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, attracting the ire of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. If the deal goes through, Musk could be stuck with a company he damaged with repeated statements condemning fake accounts, Susannah Streeter, senior market analyst at Hargreaves Lansdowne in the United Kingdom, wrote in an investor note. was. “This is an important metric that is thought to be critical to future revenue streams through paid advertising or for subscriptions on the site, and their relentless scrutiny of Twitter’s statistics over the past few months prompts questions from potential advertising partners.” Can give,” she wrote.