Twitter Temporarily Pauses Sales Of Employees' Shares, Until Elon Musk's Acquisition Completes

Twitter Inc has frozen employee share equity awards accounts. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - Twitter Inc has frozen equity rewards accounts for employees days before the deadline to close its deal with Elon Musk. This was reported by Bloomberg News on Tuesday, October 18, which is said to be a sign that the social media company hopes the deal with the Tesla CEO will be completed as soon as possible.

The report caused Twitter shares up 1.8 percent to 51.6 dollars. But that rate is still lower than Musk's offering price of 54.2 US dollars per share.

Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Inc, and Twitter were advised by a Delaware court to close the $44 billion deal on October 28. The deal was first announced in April.

According to the report, the social media company updated its employee FAQ page this week to warn staff that they will not be able to access or trade shares from the Equity Award Center.

The page said the changes were made "in anticipation of closing the pending acquisition of Twitter by entities controlled by Elon Musk," according to the report citing two people familiar with the changes.

Musk in May tried to walk away from a deal that accused Twitter of understating the number of bot and spam accounts on the social media platform, which eventually started a series of lawsuits between the two parties.

Earlier this month, Musk reversed course and said he would proceed with the deal on original terms, after which a judge suspended a trial scheduled for this week.