Shock twist in Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover bid

Elon Musk could own Twitter ‘by Friday’ after a stunning backflip that sent markets into a frenzy and caused a double suspension of trading.

(FILES) In this April 14, 2022 file photo illustration, a phone screen displays the Twitter account of Elon Musk with a photo of him shown in the background in Washington, DC. - Twitter reported disappointing results on July 22, 2022, a miss that the social network attributed to "headwinds" including the uncertainty related to Elon Musk's buyout bid. The firm is locked in a legal battle with the mercurial Tesla boss over his effort to walk away from his $44 billion deal to purchase the platform, leaving the company in limbo. Twitter missed expectations with revenue of $1.18 billion, due to "advertising industry headwinds... as well as uncertainty related to the pending acquisition of Twitter by an affiliate of Elon Musk," the firm reported. (Photo by Olivier DOULIERY / AFP)

Elon Musk could own Twitter “within days” after he offered to honour his original bid to purchase the company.

Trading of Twitter stock was halted twice after leaks of the deal sent the company’s share price soaring.

A Twitter spokeswoman confirmed to News Corp Australia that they received a letter from Musk’s lawyers offering to complete the deal.

“The intention of the company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share,” the spokeswoman said.

It comes amid Musk’s legal battle against the company, which was due to go before the courts in less than two weeks.

Lawyers for Musk made the offer to Twitter in a letter, since published in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, stating that the billionaire “intends to proceed to closing of the transaction contemplated by the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement”.

Elon Musk was due to face off against Twitter in a five-day trial starting on October 17. Picture: AFP

Bloomberg was first to leak the proposed a takeover of the company at Musk’s original offer of USD $54.20 (AUD $80.15) a share.

CNBC added that insiders believe a deal could be done “within days”, as early as Friday local time.

The company’s share price jumped as much as 15 per cent on the news before trading was halted. After trading resumed, the price of Twitter rose by as much as 23 per cent. to near $52 per share, just short of the takover value.

The USD $44 billion (AUD $68bn) deal, which already has shareholder approval, was put back on the table after Musk’s lawyers communicated the proposal to Twitter Monday night local time.

A confidential letter was filed the next day with the Delaware Chancery Court ahead of an emergency hearing on the matter scheduled for Tuesday, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

Elon Musk could own the social media platform as early as Friday, according to insiders. Picture: AFP

Musk was set to be deposed later this week ahead of the five-day non-jury trial to begin on October 17.

The trial would be scrapped if Twitter agrees to the deal, but could still go ahead if both parties don’t agree to move forward.

Lawyers for Musk and Twitter were negotiating how to close the deal, with the judge overseeing their case, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, requesting a potential plan by the end of the day before the litigation could be dropped, an insider told WSJ.

Musk first agreed to purchase Twitter at $44 billion earlier this year before informing the company in July that he was pulling out of the deal, with came with a $1 billion break up fee. Twitter sued Musk to force the purchase to continue, with the case due to begin in less than two weeks.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told AFP that Musk’s apparent pivot shows he recognised the chance of winning in court was “highly unlikely, and this $44 billion deal was going to be completed one way or another.”

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.