The shares of social media giant Twitter will be suspended from trading at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday as Tesla CEO Elon Musk nears a court-ordered deadline to close his $44 billion deal to buy the social media company.

On Thursday, the New York Stock Exchange’s website showed that the shares would be delisted.

In an open letter on Thursday,  Mr Musk spoke to Twitter’s advertisers about the future of the platform, saying he doesn’t want the platform to become a “free-for-all-hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences.” 

Mr Musk has said he plans to reverse the permanent bans of accounts previously removed from the platform for repeatedly violating its rules, including former President Donald Trump.

“In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences,” he tweeted. “Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise … Let us build something extraordinary together.”

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that equity investors like Sequoia Capital, Binance, Qatar Investment Authority and others had received the paperwork for the financing commitment from Mr Musk’s lawyers.

In early October, Mr Musk agreed to buy the company at $54.20 per share, the price he agreed to pay for the company in April after a lengthy legal battle over the terms of the acquisition deal. 

Mr Musk had attempted to back out of the deal by officially notifying an attempt to terminate the agreement in July. However, Twitter approached the court in July, asking it to compel him to complete the deal.

“Musk refuses to honour his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” Twitter said in the suit. “Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”

Mr Musk accused Twitter of failing to disclose information about spam bots, also known as fake accounts, on the platform. He maintained that he did not believe the company’s public statements that roughly 5 per cent of its active users are bots.

There had been speculations of mass layoffs once Mr Musk acquired the company.  Last week, an exclusive report by The Washington Post cited interviews and documents, purporting that Mr Musk had told prospective investors that as part of his deal to buy Twitter, he would get rid of nearly 75 per cent of the company’s 7,500 workers. Twitter clarified afterwards to its staff that there were no plans for company-wide layoffs.