Elon Musk made a striking turn in the Twitter saga on Tuesday. After months of legal wrangling over whether or not to take over Twitter, the billionaire decided to go ahead with the deal once and for all. The Tesla top executive has new plans for the network and hopes to avoid lawsuits.
It all started in April when Musk was invited to join Twitter's board. That happened after months of buying shares in the company. Musk accepted the offer, then renounced it, and then tried to buy the entire platform.
In turn, Twitter initially turned down the takeover offer. But the company turned around when it appeared Musk was serious and could raise the money. A deal was reached: Musk would buy Twitter.
But in May, Musk claimed that Twitter's estimate of the number of active fake and spam accounts on the platform was wrong. It became a yes-no game that ended in July. Musk said he was withdrawing from the takeover. "Twitter violates multiple provisions of that agreement and appears to have made false and misleading statements relied upon by Mr. Musk in entering into the merger agreement," Musk's lawyers reported at the time.
On October 17th, Twitter and Musk were scheduled to face each other for the first time in court. Whether the case will continue is not known. Musk has said the deal will happen, provided the lawsuit is stopped. Until there is an official agreement, the case is expected to continue as planned.
Experts already predicted that it will be difficult for Musk to get out from under the deal. "It is up to Musk to prove that the spam accounts were not only fake but that the number has serious implications for Twitter's revenues." In similar cases in the past, judges usually ruled in favor of the vendor, in this case, Twitter.