|
Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc, said on Friday
he was terminating his deal to buy Twitter because the company
had breached multiple provisions of the merger agreement.
Twitter is planning to sue Musk as early as this week and force
him to complete the acquisition, people familiar with the matter
told Reuters.
On Monday, Musk took a jab at Twitter's stance, tweeting that
the legal battle would lead to the company disclosing
information on bots and spam accounts in court. (https://bit.ly/3uCUPvd)
The series of tweets was Musk's first public response since the
Friday announcement.
Twitter shares ended at $36.81 on Friday and were at a 32%
discount to Musk's $54.20 bid, as they have been hit by a double
whammy of a slump in the broader equity market and investor
skepticism over the deal.
"We believe that Elon Musk's intentions to terminate the merger
are more based on the recent market sell-off than... Twitter's
'failure' to comply with his requests," Jefferies analyst Brent
Thill said in a note.
"In the absence of a deal, we would not be surprised to see the
stock find a floor at $23.5."
The contract calls for Musk to pay Twitter a $1 billion break-up
fee if he cannot complete the deal for reasons such as the
acquisition financing falling through or regulators blocking the
deal. The break-up fee would not be applicable, however, if Musk
terminates the deal on his own.
(Reporting by Medha Singh and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing
by Anil D'Silva)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
