Twitter shares halted as Elon Musk proposes to buy company again

Trading of Twitter shares was halted on Tuesday, October 4, as Elon Musk once again proposes to buy the social media company.

After trying to back out of the deal in a row over spam accounts, and just weeks before he was due to go to court to settle the dispute, Elon proposed to buy Twitter at his original offer of $54.20 a share.

News of his offer emerged and drove the company’s share price up by 13 percent.

Back in April 2022, Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44billion. However, after months of back and forth, he tried to back out of the deal in July, citing Twitter’s apparent refusal to hand over enough information about how many spam and bot accounts were active on the site.

Twitter sued him for attempting to back out and both Musk and Twitter were due to contest at a civil trial in just a few weeks.

Tuesday’s new proposal signals an end to that dispute, though it’s unclear what prompted Musk to change his mind.

He now is likely to own the company within days, sources cited by CNBC said.

It comes days after American businessman Ari Emanuel, one of Musk’s friends, urged Twitter to come to a settlement with him ahead of the court date.

Emanuel, the CEO of Endeavor, recently contacted Egon Durban, a member of Twitter’s board, urging him to end the dispute.

Musk’s retreat from the court battle signals an end to the months-long dispute.