Elon Musk's Twitter account page. Photo: Chesnot, Getty Images
Elon Musk on Wednesday shared a video of himself carrying a bathroom sink into Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, ahead of the expected close of his deal on Friday.
The big picture: The visit is the latest development in Musk's attempt to buy the social media company for an estimated $44 billion. Here is a timeline of remarks, discussions and dealings in Musk's quest to buy the company.
March 26: Musk contacts Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s founder, former chief executive officer and one of Twitter’s current directors, to discuss "the future direction of social media," including the benefits of open social protocols, according to an SEC filing.
March 27: Musk tells Twitter executives he is considering various options, including potentially joining the Twitter board, seeking to take Twitter private or starting a competitor to Twitter, per the SEC filing.
- Musk had discussions with Twitter executives about how he purchased a major stake of more than 5% of Twitter stock.
April 4: Musk announces he has bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter, the equivalent to 73,486,938 shares of Twitter common stock at the time and worth about $2.89 billion.
April 5: Twitter submits a filing before the SEC that makes Musk a director until 2024.
April 11: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweets that Musk would not be joining Twitter's board.
April 14: Musk offers to buy Twitter, saying he would pay $54.20 a share in cash, or about $43 billion, according to documents filed with the SEC.
April 15: Twitter enacts a defensive measure — called a poison pill on corporate terms — that would stop Musk's potential $43 billion hostile takeover bid
April 21: In a federal securities filing, Musk says that he didn't have any equity partners for his Twitter takeover bid.
April 25: Twitter agrees to be acquired by Musk for $44 billion. Musk would pay $54.20 per share and would have been personally responsible for half of the financing.
May 10: Musk says he would reverse Twitter's current permanent ban of former President Trump.
May 14: Musk tweets that his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter is "temporarily on hold" as he wants to learn more about Twitter's recent estimate that spam and fake accounts make up less than 5% of total users.
May 16: In a tweet thread, Agrawal lays out how Twitter found that "less than 5%" of its users are spam or fake accounts. Musk replies with a poop emoji.
- Later that day, Musk said at the 2022 All-In Summit that a viable Twitter deal is "not out of the question" at a lower price.
- He also criticized Agrawal's comments, saying there is probably four to five times the number of bots compared to what Twitter had said.
- The lowest estimate, Musk said, is that Twitter is 20% full of bots.
May 17: Musk says his bid to buy Twitter "cannot move forward" because he has questions about the fake and spam accounts number.
- "My offer was based on Twitter's SEC filings being accurate," Musk said in a tweet. "Yesterday, Twitter's CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does."
- In a lengthy regulatory filing, the Twitter board urged shareholders to vote in favor of the deal and provided a play-by-play look into how the board reached an agreement with Musk last month.
May 17: Twitter said it planned to "close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement" between Musk and the social media company.
May 18: Musk said he would vote for Republicans and can "no longer support" Democrats after previously saying Twitter "must be politically neutral."
May 27: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it was investigating Musk's early disclosure of an ownership stake in Twitter, Axios' Dan Primack writes.
June 3: Twitter said the U.S. antitrust waiting period for Musk's deal had expired, meaning the purchase can move forward after approval from Twitter stockholders and other regulatory approvals, Reuters reports.
June 6: Musk said he had "right not to consummate" his acquisition of Twitter and a "right to terminate the merger agreement," according to a letter sent from his lawyers to Twitter general counsel Vijaya Gadde.
- The letter said Musk wanted Twitter to provide information that will allow him to "facilitate his evaluation of spam and fake accounts on the company's platform."
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton agreed to investigate Twitter for false reporting on fake bot accounts on the same day.
June 8: Twitter agreed to give Musk access to a data firehose of all public tweets, Axios' Dan Primack reports.
- "Expect Musk to keep agitating for the private data, and for Twitter to keep turning him down," Primack notes.
June 16: Musk met with Twitter employees at a town hall meeting and said he wants the platform to be a safe haven for free speech. He also talked about remote work, diversity and inclusion, and the potential for him to become Twitter's CEO.
July 8: Elon Musk tried to walk away from his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter, saying in a letter filed to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission the social media company failed to meet its contractual obligations.
July 12: Twitter filed suit against Elon Musk in an effort to force him to make good on his promise to purchase the company. The case will be heard in Delaware Chancery Court, a venue that specializes in corporate disputes.
July 18: Twitter filed a reply to Musk's response to the company's lawsuit, saying Musk's request to delay a trial "fails at every level." In the filing, Twitter argued that Musk's response doesn't dispute that Twitter’s lawsuit meets the standards for an expedition.
August 22: Musk on Monday subpoenaed former Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey for documents that could support his legal push to end his $44 billion takeover bid in a Delaware court this fall.
September 13: Twitter shareholders voted to approve Elon Musk's bid to buy the social media company for $44 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports.
October 4: Musk proposed in a letter to close the deal in accordance with the original merger agreement of $54.20 per share.
- The deal depends on the receipt of debt financing and the Delaware Chancery Court adjourning the pending trial between Musk and Twitter.
- Twitter said its intention is "to close the transaction at $54.20 per share." But it has not agreed on any next steps.
October 26: Musk walked into Twitter HQ carrying a bathroom sink — yes, a sink — as he was expected to meet with employees and close his deal to buy the company this week.
Go deeper:
- Episode 1 of How It Happened: Elon Musk vs. Twitter
- The Musk-Twitter endgame
- Elon Musk's Twitter clown car
- How Elon Musk won Twitter
Editor’s note: This post is being updated as details emerge.