Trading in Twitter shares has been halted after shares surged due to reports that Elon Musk will continue his $44 billion deal to buy the company after months of legal battles.
Musk offered to buy the San Francisco company for $54.20. Shares jumped nearly 13% to $47.95 before trading halted.
Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter, according to unidentified people familiar with the case.
Musk had been trying to back out of the deal for several months after he signed up to buy the social media platform in April. Shareholders have already approved the sale.
Musk alleged that Twitter reduced the number of fake accounts on his platform, and Twitter sued when Musk announced that the deal had been halted.
Neither Twitter nor Musk’s lawyers responded to messages seeking comment on Tuesday.
The trial seeking to force Musk to buy Twitter is set to begin in Delaware Chancery Court on October 17.
Musk’s argument for staying away from the deal was based largely on the claim that Twitter misrepresented how it measures the volume of useless “spam bot” accounts for advertisers.
But most legal experts believe he faced an uphill battle persuading Chancellor Kathleen St. Jude McCormick, the court’s chief justice, that something had changed since the merger agreement in April justifying the deal’s termination.
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