Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk proposed buying Twitter at $54.20 per share, leading regulators to halt trading on the social media company’s stock.

Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter executives, according to a Tuesday report from Bloomberg. Share prices surged as much as 18% on the news.

Twitter had been battling Musk in court over his attempt to cancel a previous offer to buy the company for $44 billion. Musk had expressed concerns that the actual share of fake accounts on the platform could range as high as 33% rather than the company’s reported 5%, with a lower number of monetizable daily active users justifying a lower valuation. A trial to determine the status of the acquisition had been scheduled for October 17.

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Musk had originally floated the rate of $54.20 per share earlier this year. The deal would place Twitter at a valuation of nearly $50 billion.

Twitter attorneys had contested Musk’s rationale for passing on the $44 billion deal by producing text messages he sent to Michael Grimes, an executive at investment bank Morgan Stanley, indicating that he was concerned about macroeconomic conditions stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Let’s slow down just a few days. Putin speech tomorrow is extremely important,” Musk said. “It won’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re heading into World War III.”

Read more: Daily Wire