CompaniesBIO

A Delaware judge has agreed to stay the coming trial between Elon Musk and Twitter so the two sides can work out a deal for Musk to acquire the social media company. In a two-page ruling issued Thursday evening, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick said she would give the two parties until Oct. 28 to come to an agreement over the disputed transaction. The trial had originally been set to start Oct. 17. Should the two sides fail to finalize a deal, the trial would start in November, she said. The motion represents a victory for Musk, who in recent days had signaled he was seeking to avoid the trial by re-offering $54.20 a share for the company, or about $44 billion. Twitter opposed the offer as it sought to force Musk to close the deal on the exact terms he agreed to in April. A Twitter representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk could not immediately be reached for comment. What Twitter could look like under Elon Musk's ownership Oct. 5,...

The U.S. and China have taken a significant first step toward keeping U.S.-listed Chinese stocks like Alibaba from being forced off U.S. stock exchanges. Holger Gogolin | iStock | Getty Images BEIJING — The U.S. and China recently took a significant first step toward keeping U.S.-listed Chinese stocks like Alibaba from being forced off U.S. stock exchanges. What needs to happen next is a smooth on-ground inspection in China by the U.S. with adequate support from Chinese authorities, analysts said. "Many implementation details probably can only be figured out by the auditing firms and the [Ministry of Finance] — together with [the China Securities Regulatory Commission] — through real-case auditing trials under this unprecedented agreement," said Winston Ma, adjunct professor of law at New York University. The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said its inspectors are set to arrive in Hong Kong in mid-September, shortly after which "all audit work papers requ...

The China Securities Regulatory Commission and U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced Friday both sides signed an agreement for cooperation on inspecting the audit work papers of U.S.- listed Chinese companies. Pictured here is the CSRC building in Beijing in 2020. Emmanuel Wong | Getty Images News | Getty Images BEIJING — The risk of Chinese stocks delisting from U.S. exchanges has nearly halved after regulators reached an audit agreement, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a report Monday. The China Securities Regulatory Commission and U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced Friday that both sides signed an agreement for cooperation on inspecting the audit work papers of U.S.- listed Chinese companies. China's Ministry of Finance also signed the agreement. "This is no doubt a regulatory breakthrough ," Goldman Sachs' Kinger Lau and a team said, while cautioning that much uncertainty remains. They pointed out the PCAOB said the deal wa...