Twitter has frozen staff stock accounts in a concrete sign Elon Musk's takeover deal is close to completion, report says

• Twitter froze its employees' ability to access and trade shares on Monday, Bloomberg reported.
• The move is seemingly a clear sign Twitter plans to go ahead with the $44 million Elon Musk takeover deal.

Twitter has frozen its staff's equity award accounts in a sign that it plans to go ahead with the Elon Musk takeover deal, Bloomberg reported.

Twitter updated its employees FAQs on Monday with a notice saying that the ability to access or trade shares on its Equity Award Center had been frozen. The accounts allow staff to check the status of their stock compensation.

"This freeze allows Schwab to perform final reconciliation of employee accounts prior to close of the acquisition," the notice read, per Bloomberg.

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Two people familiar with the change told Bloomberg that the page said the change was made "in anticipation of the closing of the pending acquisition of Twitter by an entity controlled by Elon Musk."

Twitter declined to comment when contacted by Insider.

Musk, who is the world's richest person and CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, is in the midst of a tumultuous $44-billion deal to buy the social-media platform. Musk first offered to buy the company in April after accumulating a 9.2% share, making him its biggest shareholder, and trying to join its board of directors.

But the next month he seemed more hesitant on buying Twitter, and in July he sent a letter to Twitter terminating the deal, claiming that the social-media giant had withheld or distorted data on the number of bot accounts on the platform.

Within days, Twitter sued Musk, accusing him of "refusing to honor his obligations." Musk countersued later in July, alleging that the company intentionally miscounted the number of spam accounts as part of what he called "its scheme to mislead investors about the company's prospects."

After months of Musk trying to abandon the deal, it is now back on the cards. Musk and Twitter came close to agreeing a deal at a roughly 8% discount for the tech mogul. In the end, however, Musk's lawyers sent Twitter a letter renewing the original offer at $54.20 a share on October 4.

The judge overseeing Twitter's case against Musk in Delaware Chancery Court has agreed to halt proceedings in the case until October 28 to give them time to to close on the transaction, or otherwise the parties will face a trial in November. Musk's legal team has said the deal can close by then.

Sources told Insider that hundreds of Twitter employees have fled the company since June, though a spokesperson attributed this to macroeconomic factors.