The saga between Musk and Twitter has been a ruse for months as the world’s richest man tried to avoid a deal.
Twitter shares were halted after shares surged amid reports that Elon Musk would press ahead with a $44 billion deal to buy the company after months of legal battles.
In April, Musk offered to buy the company in San Francisco for $54.20. His new reported offer is the same.
Shares jumped nearly 13% to $47.95 on Tuesday before trading halted after news of the report hit the trading floor.
Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that Musk made his latest offer in a letter on Twitter, according to people familiar with the matter who Bloomberg News did not identify.
Musk had been trying to walk away from the deal for months after signing on to buy the social media platform in April. But Twitter shareholders have already approved the sale, and he has faced legal backlash from the social media company for trying to block the deal.
Musk argued that Twitter was understating the number of fake accounts on its platform, and Twitter sued when Musk announced the deal was off.
Neither Twitter nor Musk’s lawyers responded to messages seeking comment on Tuesday.
The trial to force Musk to buy Twitter is scheduled to begin in Delaware Chancery Court on October 17.
Musk’s arguments for rejecting the deal were largely based on claims that Twitter had misrepresented how it measures the size of “spambot” accounts that are useless to advertisers. But most legal experts believed he had a hard time convincing Chancellor Kathleen St. Jude McCormick, the presiding judge, that something had changed since the April merger agreement to warrant canceling the deal.
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