Twitter Think-tank Elon Musk’s Acquisition Offer

Edited By Araba, Olawale Enifenilanfe

Twitter is closing in on a deal to sell itself to billionaire, Elon Musk, that could be announced as soon as Monday, Reuters and Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

Twitter could accept Musk’s original offer to pay $54.20 per share in cash, according to Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal, valuing the social media company at about $43 billion.

There is still a possibility the deal collapses during the final stages of negotiations, the Wall Street Journal reports, though Twitter may make the deal official as soon as Monday, after its board meets with investors, according to Reuters.

Twitter shares jumped 4.7% to $51.25 in pre-market trading, continuing the stock’s gains since Musk’s bid for the company became public earlier this month. Twitter did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, became Twitter’s largest shareholder on April 4, when he purchased a 9.2% stake in the company for $2.89 billion.

Twitter’s board had openly resisted a sale to Musk previously, adopting a poison pill on April 15, to prevent a hostile takeover from Musk, though the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the board was warming to Musk’s offer.

Musk disclosed in an SEC filing last week, where he secured $46.5 billion in funding for his Twitter bid. Musk’s 83 million followers make him one of the most popular Twitter users, and he has been a frequent critic of Twitter, openly questioning if the company’s policies infringe on freedom of speech.

Musk is worth $269.7 billion, making him the wealthiest man in the world, according to Forbes’ real-time calculations.