Twitter’s shares rose by about 4% in opening trade in New York on speculation the firm could agree on a takeover deal with Elon Musk as early as Monday.

The board of the social media giant is reported to have met with Mr. Musk over the weekend to discuss his $43bn offer.

Twitter had initially rebuffed the billionaire’s approach.

But according to reports, Twitter is now in the final stages of negotiations with Mr. Musk to buy the business.

Reuters, the news agency, reported that an announcement may come later on Monday after Twitter’s board met and recommended a deal to its shareholders.

Shares rose almost 4% to $50.62 on the reports but remained below Mr. Musk’s offer price of $54.20 a share.

Mr. Musk’s targeting of Twitter has moved at remarkable speed. It emerged at the beginning of April that Mr. Musk, who is the boss of electric carmaker Tesla, had become the largest shareholder in Twitter with a 9.2% stake.

He was then invited to join Twitter’s board but turned down the offer before launching a surprise bid for the company on 14 April, saying he wanted to “unlock” the social media platform’s “extraordinary potential”.

Twitter responded by putting in place a so-called “poison pill” defence to fend off Mr. Musk. The mechanism would have created difficulties for Mr. Musk if he attempted to increase his stake in the company.

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