Less than two weeks before the start of a trial involving Twitter and Elon Musk, Bloomberg reported that the Tesla CEO made an offer to buy the microblogging platform for the original price of $54.20 a share.
Bloomberg, quoting anonymous sources, said in the report that Musk sent Twitter a letter with the offer. The news sent Twitter's stock soaring by over 18 percent.
Earlier this year, Musk offered to buy the social media company for around $44 billion. Soon after,
Musk started accusing Twitter of providing misleading information about the number of bots on the platform, and eventually backed out of the deal.
This forced Twitter to take Musk to court in a bid to force him to honour the deal. The Trial is to start on October 17.
In the interim, Twitter was rocked by explosive allegations made by a former top executive, who accused the company's officials of everything from complicity in the January 6 riots to employing foreign spies.
Musk's main claim against Twitter was that the San Francisco-based company breached their deal because it will not share with him enough information to back up its claim that spam or fake accounts constitute less than 5 percent of its active users. Twitter has stood by this estimate but also said it's possible the number of these accounts is higher.
The whistleblower, Twitter's former head of security Peiter Zatko, also alleged that the number of bot accounts on Twitter was considerably higher than the 5 percent as claimed by the social media giant.
The allegations appeared to bolster Elon Musk's case, with
a judge allowing the Tesla CEO to add the whistleblower's claims to his countersuit. However, the judge denied the billionaire's request to delay the trial.
However,
legal experts have said Twitter has a strong legal case against Musk, and added that the microblogging platform could opt for a renegotiation or settlement instead of a long court fight. The latest move by Musk is in line with the analysis.
