By going through with the deal, Musk essentially gave Twitter what it was seeking from the court — "specific performance" of the contract with Musk, meaning he would have to go through with the purchase at the original price.

Eric Talley, a law professor at Columbia University, said he's not surprised by Musk's turnaround, especially ahead of a scheduled deposition of Musk by Twitter attorneys starting Thursday that was "not going to be pleasant.".

If Musk were to lose the trial, the judge could not only force him to close the deal but also impose interest payments that would have increased its cost, Talley said.

Legal experts said Musk may have anticipated that he would lose.

Musk's main argument for terminating the deal – that Twitter was misrepresenting how it measured its "spam bot" problem – also didn't appear to be going well as Twitter had been working to pick apart Musk's attempts to get third-party data scientists to bolster his concerns.

Columbia's Talley said he would insist on Musk putting money into an escrow account until the deal is completed.

Mysteriously, neither Musk nor Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has written anything about the deal on Twitter, where many developments in the dispute have been aired.

If the deal does go through, Musk may be stuck with a company he damaged with repeated statements denouncing fake accounts, Susannah Streeter, senior markets analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown in the United Kingdom, wrote in an investor note.

In a proposed order, Musk attorneys, said "an adverse inference is drawn against plaintiff, that all destroyed evidence corroborates Mr.

If Musk were to lose, among the remedies that would favor Twitter is a court order to go through with the deal.