Elon Musk Offered to Buy Twitter at a Lower Price in Recent Talks

Four people familiar with the discussions said that Musk's representatives spoke with the company several times about lowering the price.

Three people said that Mr. Musk wanted a discount of as much as 30 percent, which would have valued the company at over $30 billion. The people who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks said that the proposal was turned down.

In the past week, discussions narrowed to a discount of about 10 percent, which would have allowed Mr. Musk to make a deal. The talks didn't progress. The company had a market cap of $39.2 billion.

The talks took place just a few weeks before the Delaware courtroom where Mr. Musk would have to explain his plan to take the company private. He said in July that he didn't want to buy the social media company because of the problem with email. The deal was forced through by the lawsuit.

The legal battle exposed Mr. Musk's private text messages with tech investors and celebrities and caused uncertainty about the company's future.

The two sides could avoid a public trial if they reached an agreement. The deposition of the billionaire was supposed to take place on Thursday, but the parties agreed to delay it.

There were no term sheets prepared for the discussions about a discount. The talks didn't go forward.

Mr. Musk offered to pay his full price for the company in a letter to the micro-blogging site.

Mr. Musk said that completing the acquisition was dependent on his ability to secure financing from the banks that had agreed to back his April bid. Mr. Musk will have to pay a $1 billion break-up fee if the banks don't follow through. He requested that the litigation against him be stopped.

The company said it intended to close the deal at $54.20 per share.

Adding certainty to the deal is one of the options being considered by the company. The closing process will be monitored by the court to make sure that Mr. Musk follows through.

Representatives for the billionaire and the social media company have been talking. As of Wednesday afternoon, there was no agreement.

The judge overseeing the case wrote in a legal filing on Wednesday that there had been no move for a stay. We are going to have our trial on October 17th.

Andrew Ross Sorkin was involved in the report.