Billionaire Elon Musk is proposing to go ahead with his original offer of $68 billion to take Twitter private, a securities filing showed on Tuesday, signalling an end to a legal battle that could have forced Mr Musk to pay up.
An agreement would put the world's richest person in charge of one of the most influential media platforms and end months of turbulent litigation that damaged Twitter's brand and fed Mr Musk's reputation for erratic behavior.
Twitter told regulators that Elon Musk sent a letter saying he will go through with the deal he inked early this year to buy the tech firm for $44 US billion.
"The intention of the company is to close the transaction at (US) $54.20 per share," Twitter said in a tweet confirming the billionaire entrepreneur is apparently abandoning his legal battle to terminate the deal.
Conditions noted in the letter included that the court immediately halt all action in the lawsuit, with Mr Musk poised to be deposed under oath later this week.
Mr Musk, the chief executive of electric car maker Tesla, will take over a company he originally committed to buying in April, but soon soured on.
The latest twist in the long-running buyout saga comes less than two weeks before the start of the high-stakes trial instigated by Twitter in an effort to hold the Tesla chief to the deal he signed in April.
Mr Musk was slated to be deposed by Twitter attorneys later this week in preparation for the trial.
A serial entrepreneur made rich through his success with Tesla electric cars, Mr Musk began to step back from the Twitter deal soon after it was agreed.
He said in a letter in July that he was cancelling the purchase because he was misled by Twitter concerning the number of fake "bot" accounts, allegations rejected by the company.
Twitter, meanwhile, has been seeking material or testimony to prove Mr Musk is contriving excuses to walk away because he changed his mind.
In July, a Delaware judge agreed to fast-track a trial on Twitter's allegations, which the company argued is impeding its financial performance.
Barack Obama is the most followed Twitter user.
Free speech or abuse?
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in an email that Musk's apparent pivot shows that he recognised his chance of winning in court was "highly unlikely, and this $68 billion deal was going to be completed one way or another."
Shares in Twitter were up 12.7 per cent at $US73.90, having been halted by the New York Stock Exchange following a Bloomberg report on a possible new takeover offer.
Mr Musk made his unsolicited bid to buy Twitter without asking for estimates regarding spam or fake accounts, and even sweetened his offer to the board by withdrawing a diligence condition, the lawsuit against him said.
Seen by his champions as an iconoclastic genius and by his critics as an erratic megalomaniac, Mr Musk surprised many investors with his pursuit of Twitter.
His potential stewardship of the social media site hit several bumps since the takeover attempt was made public, and sparked worry from activists over lifting of the ban on Donald Trump — as well as the possibility the new owner would open the gates to abusive and misinformative posts.
Mr Musk — who sees himself as a free speech advocate — has said he favoured lifting the ban on Mr Trump, who was kicked off the platform in January 2021 shortly after the former US president's efforts to overturn his election defeat led to the 6 January assault on the US Capitol.
Mr Musk's norm-defying conduct has come as little surprise to watchers of the Tesla and SpaceX chief after years of statements that flout or test convention and sometimes provoke a crackdown from regulators.
Only on Monday he was embroiled in a Twitter spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over his ideas on ending Russia's invasion.
