Elon Musk intends to complete Twitter takeover deal

By Servet Gunerigok

WASHINGTON (AA) - American tech billionaire Elon Musk is willing to move forward with his $44 billion takeover of micro-blogging platform Twitter, media reports said Tuesday.

Musk sent a letter to Twitter notifying the social media company that he intends to proceed to close the transaction for $54.20 per share that was agreed to in April, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing dated Monday.

American news outlet CNN cited a Twitter spokesperson who said the company received Musk’s letter and reiterated its previous statement that the "intention of the Company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share."

The letter of intent comes two weeks before the Tesla CEO is scheduled to go to trial in a lawsuit Twitter brought against him.

Shares of Twitter shot up more than 20% after the news. It was halted from trading several times.

Musk sent his first letter to terminate the deal in July, alleging Twitter violated the agreement by misrepresenting the number of spam and fake accounts on its platform.

Twitter followed suit by suing Musk to complete the acquisition, accusing the billionaire of using bots as a ploy to walk away from the takeover.

Twitter shareholders voted earlier this month in favor of Musk's original agreement.