Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on July 9 that he was terminating his $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter. This comes less than three months after his unsolicited bid to buy the company and take it private.
This move is likely to kickstart a potentially long legal battle between the mercurial billionaire and the 16-year-old social media firm. In a tweet on July 9, Twitter's board chairman Bret Taylor said that they plan to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement and are confident that they will prevail. Here's a quick timeline of all that has happened so far-
January 31, 2022 - Elon Musk quietly starts buying Twitter shares.
March 14, 2022 - Musk's stake has increased to over 5%.
March 26, 2022 - Musk contacts Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey to discuss the "future direction of social media".
March 27, 2022 - In a discussion with Twitter executives, Musk says he is considering various options with respect to his ownership, including potentially joining the company board, seeking to take Twitter private or starting a competitor to Twitter, as per an SEC filing.
April 4, 2022 - Musk's stake in Twitter increases to 9.2%, making him the largest individual stakeholder in the firm. Musk publicly discloses his stake.
April 5, 2022 - Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced that Musk will be joining the Twitter board.
April 9, 2022 - Musk tells Twitter executives he would not be joining the Twitter Board and would be making an offer to take Twitter private
April 10, 2022 - Agrawal announces that Musk has rejected the offer to join Twitter's board.
April 12, 2022 - A group of Twitter investors sued Elon Musk for not disclosing buying a significant stake to the Securities and Exchanges Commission.
April 14, 2022 - Musk offers to buy Twitter in a $44 billion deal, for $54.20 per share.
April 15, 2022 - Twitter board adopts 'poison pill', a defence strategy to prevent hostile takeover.
April 21, 2022 - Elon Musk details his financing plan to acquire Twitter. He mentions he has obtained commitment letters for around $46.5 billion in financing. This includes $21 billion in personal equity and $25.5 billion in loans.
April 25, 2022- Twitter’s board accepts Elon Musk's offer to buy the social media company in a $44 billion deal and take it private.
April 29, 2022 - Elon Musk sells roughly $8.4 billion worth of Tesla shares during the week.
May 4, 2022 - Elon Musk bags $7.1 billion financing from Sequoia, Binance, a16z, Larry Ellison, others. He revises his Twitter bid by increasing his equity commitment by $6.25 billion to $27.25 billion and reducing the margin loan from $12.5 billion to $6.25 billion.
May 12, 2022 - Agrawal asks two top Twitter executives - Kayvon Beykpour and Bruce Falck - to leave. He also announces a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting measures.
May 14, 2022 - Elon Musk says the deal is "temporarily on hold" over Twitter's spam bots claim
May 16, 2022 - Elon Musk says a lower price for Twitter deal is "not out of question"
May 16, 2022 - In a tweet thread, Parag Agrawal explains Twitter's spam calculation on how they found "less than 5%" of its users are spam or fake accounts.
May 17, 2022 - Musk says the deal "cannot move forward" without proof on fake accounts.
May 17, 2022 - Twitter's board recommends shareholders vote to approve the merger agreement.
May 18, 2022 - Twitter board says it plans to 'enforce' the merger agreement. The firm loses three more senior employees.
May 25, 2022 - Elon Musk revises his Twitter bid by pledging an additional $6.25 billion in equity financing, bringing his personal equity component to $33.5 billion, and dropping a margin loan tied to his Tesla stake.
May 27, 2022 - The US Securities and Exchange Commission announces that it is scrutinizing Elon Musk's purchases of Twitter stock and whether he properly disclosed his stake. It also discloses a letter sent to Musk on April 4.
June 3, 2022 - Twitter says the 30-day window for US antitrust regulators to block Elon Musk's proposed $44 billion buyout expired on June 2.
June 6, 2022 - In a letter, Musk accuses Twitter of "actively resisting and thwarting" his rights to data and information about spam and fake accounts on the platform, terming it as a "clear material breach" of the company's obligations under the merger agreement.
June 6, 2022 - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opens an investigation for potentially false reporting over its fake bot accounts.
June 8, 2022 - Twitter agrees to provide Musk access to its full "firehose" of all public tweets, to comply with his demands.
June 16, 2022 - Musk met with Twitter employees virtually at a town hall meeting, fielding questions across a range of topics including content moderation and handling free speech, layoffs, remote work and future company plans. Twitter also provided more user data following Musk's complaint that the data trove he received was "insufficient", according to an Insider report.
July 7, 2022 - Twitter lays off 30% of its talent acquisition team. The company told The Wall Street Journal these job cuts impacted fewer than 100 people.
July 8, 2022 - Elon Musk is trying to back out of the deal to buy Twitter, alleging that the company has not complied with its contractual obligations. In an SEC filing, Musk alleged that the social media firm has made false and misleading representations regarding spam and fake accounts on the platform. Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor says they plan to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.
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