Trading in Twitter shares has been halted after the stock spiked on a media report that Elon Musk would proceed with his deal to buy the company.
Billionaire Elon Musk is proposing to go ahead with his original offer of $US54.20 per share ($83.46) to take Twitter Inc private, Bloomberg News reports, sending the shares of the social media firm surging.
Twitter shares jumped 12.7 per cent to $US47.93 ($73.80) before trading was halted for the second time while Tesla Inc, the electric vehicle company that Musk heads, fell about 3.0 per cent.
Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter, Bloomberg reported, citing people who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Twitter and Musk’s lawyers were not immediately available for requests for comment from Reuters.
The news comes ahead of a highly anticipated faceoff between Musk and Twitter in Delaware’s Court of Chancery on October 17, in which the social media company was set to seek an order directing Musk to close the deal at $US54.20 ($83.46) per share.
“This is a clear sign that Musk recognised heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning vs. Twitter board was highly unlikely and this $US44 billion ($68 billion) deal was going to be completed one way or another,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note after the news.
Musk agreed in April to buy Twitter for $US44 billion but within weeks said the number of bot accounts was much higher than Twitter’s estimate of less than 5 per cent of users.
Musk and Zelensky in stoush over peace poll
The Tesla boss sparked bite-back from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky when he posted a Twitter poll of suggestions for ending Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine-Russia Peace:
– Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people.
– Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).
– Water supply to Crimea assured.
– Ukraine remains neutral.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2022
It asked his 107.7 million followers to vote on ideas that included ceding territory to Russia.
In response, Volodymyr Zelensky posted his own poll asking users if they liked the world’s richest person more when he supported Ukraine.
Which @elonmusk do you like more?
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 3, 2022
Musk returned serve saying “I still very much support Ukraine, but am convinced that massive escalation of the war will cause great harm to Ukraine and possibly the world.”
Ukraine’s outgoing ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, used a strong expletive, which he described as his “very diplomatic reply,” the BBC reports.
-with AAP
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