Twitter shares have been suspended following a report that Elon Musk will proceed with a takeover of the social media platform.

Mr. Musk is set to buy Twitter at the original price he offered months ago before he walked away from a deal, sources told US media.

Shares in Twitter were up almost 13% before trading was halted.

Mr. Musk was due to face Twitter in court later this month after he tried to pull out of the takeover.

Mr. Musk offered to pay $54.20 per share for the company in April, in a deal that valued the social media platform at $44bn.

But he balked at the deal just a few weeks later, citing concerns that the number of bots on the platform was higher than Twitter claimed.

Twitter denied the accusations and sued Mr. Musk to force the deal to go through.

The back-and-forth came amid a sharp downturn in the value of technology stocks, including Tesla, the electric car company that Mr. Musk leads and is the base of much of his wealth.

Twitter accused Mr. Musk of wanting out because he was worried about the price.

The fight between Mr. Musk and Twitter, which was scheduled to go to trial 17 October, had ensnarled many of the biggest names in tech, as lawyers for the two companies demanded communications about the deal.

Mr. Musk, who could have paid a $1bn break-up fee to walk away from the deal, was set to be interviewed ahead of the trial this week.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said Mr. Musk’s chance of winning was “highly unlikely”.

“Being forced to do the deal after a long and ugly court battle in Delaware was not an ideal scenario and instead accepting this path and moving forward with the deal will save a massive legal headache,” he wrote in a report after the news.

But he added, that Mr. Musk’s ownership of the platform, a top venue for politicians and journalists to spread news and opinion, would still likely to cause a “firestorm of worries and questions” in Washington and beyond.

Analysis box by James Clayton, North America technology reporter

It’s never dull with Musk.

Elon Musk has for months now been trying to get out of this deal.

In doing so he has argued that Twitter is full of bots.

He has said on multiple occasions that Twitter may have many times more fake accounts than it admits to.

By making these claims he has helped to tarnish the reputation of the company.

Advertisers are nervous – they want to buy ads that are seen by humans, with wallets, not bots.

So for Elon Musk to then offer to buy the company again, at the initial price, seems bizarre.

Twitter is reportedly looking at Mr. Musk’s offer closely. Musk’s behavior in this deal has so far been erratic. Could this be a legal strategy to delay a court case?

But if this reported offer is credible it’s a massive win for Twitter’s shareholders and its lawyers.

Many Twitter employees, however, will be less pleased. I’ve spoken to several employees who are privately nervous about a Musk takeover, and what that might mean for moderation policies – and more acutely – their own job security.

And as for Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal? Well emails disclosed last week suggests he doesn’t get along well with Musk.

A Musk Twitter takeover would almost certainly mean a new person in charge of the company. (BBC)

Update news