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Elon Musk is planning to buy social media company Twitter for his original offer price.

The world’s richest man is proposing to go ahead with purchasing the platform for $54.20 per share, a total value of $44bn (£38.4bn), following months of legal battles.

Earlier, trading in Twitter shares was halted as the stock price spiked following reports the deal was back on. The shares had been up by nearly 13% at $47.93 before trading was paused.

Mr Musk offered to stick to the original deal in a letter to Twitter, he disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

The filing said he’ll complete the deal provided he gets the debt financing he needs and provided the Delaware Court of Chancery, where he was due to appear in less than two weeks, throws out the lawsuit brought by Twitter.

In a letter from Mr Musk’s lawyers, he said: “Musk Parties intend to proceed to closing of the transaction… and adjourn the trial and all other proceedings.”

Twitter and Mr Musk were due to be in court later this month as the company attempted to hold Mr Musk to his original offer, made in April.

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“This is a clear sign that Musk recognised heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning versus the Twitter board was highly unlikely and this $44bn deal was going to be completed one way or another,” said Dan Ives, analyst at investment firm Wedbush.

Mr Musk, the Tesla chief executive, had wanted to back out of the deal over the number of bot accounts on the platform.

He said it was above Twitter’s estimate of 5% of users and claimed in July that meant he could exit the deal.

Bots are automated accounts whose existence can lead to an overestimation of how many humans use the website. Knowing the number of genuine users is important for advertising sales and the overall value of the platform.

The takeover deal had received approval from Twitter shareholders last month.

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More than $16bn worth of Tesla shares had been exchanged as of midday New York time on Tuesday, resulting in a stock value plunge which rebounded in afternoon trading.

The proposal by Mr Musk may end months of turbulent litigation which was heading into a face-off in Delaware’s Court of Chancery on 17 October.

Legal disputes involving senior Twitter executives and texts from Mr Musk were aired which have hurt Twitter’s reputation and company morale.

“I am sitting on 2023 company wide strategy readouts and I guess we are going to collectively ignore what’s going on”, Rumman Chowdhury, a director for the Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency and Accountability at Twitter said on the platform on Tuesday.

In the past Mr Musk has taken to Twitter to stir controversy, such as suggesting a peace plan for the Ukraine-Russia war that drew swift condemnation from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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Mr Musk also said he would overturn former president Donald Trump’s ban from the site.

According to text messages that came to light during the litigation, Mr Musk planned to change the platform by battling spam by verifying accounts; hosting money transfers, and wanted to create Twitter subscriptions instead of relying on advertising.

Responding to the letter from Mr Musk, 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 per share.”

But the troubles are not over for Mr Musk. He must now raise the money he needs to buy Twitter. Stock in Tesla, the company electric car company he is the CEO of, has been under pressure as investors fear he may sell shares to fund the Twitter purchase.

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iPhones sold in US will no longer come from China – as Apple reveals impact of Trump’s tariffs

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iPhones sold in US will no longer come from China - as Apple reveals impact of Trump's tariffs

Apple says devices sold in the US will no longer come from China, as the tech giant tries to mitigate the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Most iPhones will be sourced from India instead, with iPads coming from Vietnam, to prevent dramatic price rises for American consumers.

Unveiling financial results from January to March, the company said the US president’s escalating trade war has had a limited impact on its performance so far.

However, Apple CEO Tim Cook believes the tariffs will add £677m in costs during the current quarter – assuming Trump’s policies don’t change.

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Revenue for the first three months of the year stood at £71.8bn, with earnings of £18.6bn also beating analyst expectations.

High demand for iPhones during this period may have been driven by US shoppers rushing to make purchases before the new tariffs came into force.

But the full impact of any panic buying will only emerge when Apple reports its results from April to June later in the year.

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Apple’s reliance on Chinese factories to manufacture its iPhones meant the company was far more exposed to the impact of Trump’s trade war than others.

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After the president unveiled plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries – now largely paused for 90 days – Apple’s stock plunged by 23%, wiping out £582bn of value.

While its share price has recovered slightly, it remains 5% lower than before “Liberation Day”.

Growing tensions between Washington and Beijing are also having an impact on Apple’s sales in China, which fell 2.3% between January and March.

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Addressing the planned changes to manufacturing, Mr Cook added: “We have a complex supply chain. There’s always risk in the supply chain. What we learned some time ago was that having everything in one location had too much risk with it.”

Devices sold outside of the US will continue to be made in China.

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Space NK owner kicks off £300m-plus sale process

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Space NK owner kicks off £300m-plus sale process

The owner of Space NK has kicked off a formal sale process more than a year since it hired bankers to auction the high street beauty chain.

Sky News has learnt that teasers have begun being circulated to prospective bidders in recent weeks, despite anxiety about consumer confidence in a stuttering UK economy.

Manzanita Capital, a private investment firm, engaged bankers at Raymond James to oversee an auction in April 2024.

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A deal is expected to fetch between £300m and £400m.

Manzanita has owned Space NK for more than 20 years, and is not expected to sanction a sale unless it receives an attractive offer.

One party contacted about a potential bid said the business appeared to be in good financial health.

Manzanita has also owned the French perfume house Diptyque and Susanne Kaufmann, an Austrian luxury skincare brand.

Founded in 1993 by Nicky Kinnaird, Space NK – which is named after her initials – trades from roughly stores and employs more than 1,000 people.

It specialises in high-end skincare and cosmetics products.

Manzanita previously explored a sale of Space NK in 2018, hiring Goldman Sachs to handle a strategic review, but opted not to proceed with a deal.

Manzanita has been contacted for comment, while Raymond James declined to comment.

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Tesla’s board members have reportedly started looking for Elon Musk’s successor as CEO

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Tesla's board members have reportedly started looking for Elon Musk's successor as CEO

Tesla’s board members have reportedly started a search for someone to replace Elon Musk as CEO.

Several executive search firms were approached to find a successor around a month ago, the Wall Street Journal reported.

But it added that the current status of the succession planning for the electric car-maker was not known.

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Tesla’s chair, Robyn Denholm, later reacted to the report by insisting that any suggestion of an active search was “absolutely false”.

She added that the board was highly confident in Musk’s ability to continue “executing on the exciting growth plan ahead”.

Musk’s net worth has plunged and Tesla stocks have fallen sharply amid a public backlash over his role in Donald Trump’s government. He owns just under 13% of Tesla stock and is the largest shareholder.

The world’s richest man has been leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he has overseen the firing of tens of thousands of government employees.

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He has also supported far-right parties in Europe, which has led to protests against Musk and Tesla, which have seen its showrooms and charging stations vandalised across the US and Europe.

President Trump has labelled the vandals “terrorists”.

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It comes after Musk said the time he spends with DOGE would “drop significantly” from May and he will dedicate more time to running his companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX and X.

The board members met with Musk and asked him to announce publicly he would spend more time at Tesla, the report said.

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It was unclear if Musk, who is a member of the board, was aware of any attempts to identify a successor, or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla had affected succession planning, it added.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump said Musk could be part of his administration for as long as he wants.

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“You’re invited to stay as long as you want,” Mr Trump said.

He said Musk had been “treated unfairly” for his role in helping Mr Trump slash the size of the federal government, adding: “You really have sacrificed a lot.”

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