Elon Musk has changed his mind about buying Twitter, again, and employees at the social media giant are far from happy about it.
In a shock turn in the tumultuous legal battle, Musk has agreed to pay the price he offered before attempting to walk away from the deal months ago.
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It comes just two weeks before the Tesla CEO was due to appear in court opposite Twitter. The social media giant had sued Musk after his U-turn and tried to make him honour the takeover terms he’d agreed on.
In a letter penned to the firm, Musk claimed he is now happy to move ahead and complete the transaction.
Analysts claim the reversal is an embarrassing surrender for the SpaceX CEO, as it acknowledges the weaknesses of his case, Financial Times reports.
Eric Talley, law professor at Columbia Law School, said that the move was a “big pill to swallow for him.”
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By GlobalDataParag Agrawal, Twitter’s CEO, sent an internal email to employees to alert them of Musk’s intent to buy the company again.
“We received the letter from the Musk parties which they have filed with the SEC. Our intention is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share,” according to the email, Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer reported.
“I will continue to keep you posted on significant updates, but in the meantime, thank you for your patience as we work through this on the legal side,” the email concluded.
The move has sent Twitter shares soaring over 20% to more than $52 each. However, the value has remained below the takeover price, which hints at investor doubts about the deal actually going through.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Musk wrote: “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”.
It was reported on Wednesday that Twitter workers’ morale is sitting at an all-time low since learning about Musk buying Twitter.
It comes after hundreds of employees quit the company during the rocky legal battle throwing future employment into uncertainty.
A lack of trust in Musk and overall employee suspiciousness can be seen in screenshots of Twitter’s internal Slack channels that were shared with Platformer.
In the #stonks channel, one employee said: “I don’t understand why Elon would need to propose the deal again. The original one still stands. Just write the cheque, bro.”
Another said they have a “generally low opinion of Musk.”
Defenestrated US president Donald Trump is another person to have a right to be unhappy about the news.
Since he was kicked off Twitter following the Capitol Hill riots in 2020, Trump has been busy trying to set up his own social media platform Truth Social.
However, the special-purpose acquisition company buying Truth Social fell 4% on Tuesday after Musk’s U-turn hit the wire.
Read more about Musk’s rocky legal battle with Twitter on Verdict’s full billionaire beef timeline.
GlobalData is the parent company of Verdict and its sister publications.
