A deal for the billionaire Elon Musk to buy Twitter is back on it has been announced - just weeks before a court case over his first bid for the company earlier this year was due to begin.
The s ocial media giant said in a statement tonight that Mr Musk had offered to purchase the company for 54.20 dollars (£47.23) per share, the same price he previously put forward.
Mr Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter on Monday, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
READ MORE: Rebekah Vardy ordered to pay £1.5m in legal costs following court battle with Coleen Rooney
That equates to a total value of the deal of 44 billion dollars (£38.3 billion) with the firm saying they intend to agree to the offer and 'close the transaction.'
A spokesperson for Twitter said: “We received the letter from the Musk parties which they have filed with the SEC. The intention of the company is to close the transaction at 54.20 dollars per share.”
The co-founder of SpaceX and Tesla co-founder Mr Musk is himself a prolific Twitter user with over 100 million followers. He first offered to purchase the social media company back in April.
He said it had the "potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy" but said he believed it needed to be "to be transformed as a private company."
He then dramatically pulled out of the deal in July. Lawyers for Mr Musk said it was due to the platform “not complying with its contractual obligations” surrounding the deal, namely giving him enough information to “make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform”.
Twitter said in response it was “committed to closing the transaction” and launched legal action.
A month later, in a published court document, Twitter accused Mr Musk of “looking for an excuse” to get out of the deal, with the firm calling Mr Musk’s accusations “factually inaccurate, legally insufficient, and commercially irrelevant”.
The stalled takeover was due to head to trial beginning on October 17 however the latest development means that could now potentially be avoided.
READ NEXT:
Tributes pour in for 'gorgeous' mum mauled to death by American bulldogs
- Husband, 35, who "on the face of it, has normal existence", stalked seven women including schoolgirls from his car in terrifying 90 minute rampage
- Cyclist dad-of-two left with horrific injuries in 'hit-and-run' crash captured on CCTV
- University of Salford removes student nurses from NHS mental health unit under investigation by police
