Elon Musk has notified co-investors who committed to help fund his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter Inc TWTR.N that he plans to close his buyout of the social media firm by Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Equity investors, including Sequoia Capital, Binance, Qatar Investment Authority and others have received the requisite paperwork for the financing commitment from Muskโs lawyers, the source added.
The move is the clearest sign yet that Musk plans to comply with a Delaware court judgeโs deadline to complete the transaction by Friday.
The banks that committed to fund Muskโs buyout of Twitter have finished putting together the final debt financing agreement and are in the process of signing the necessary documents, according to a Bloomberg News report.
Musk pledged to close the deal on a video conference call on Monday with bankers who are helping fund the deal, according to the report.
Twitter declined to comment. Muskโs lawyers were not immediately available for comment.
Twitter shares jumped on the news and were trading up 3% at $52.95 on Tuesday, closer to Muskโs offer price of $54.20.
Musk has pledged to provide $46.5 billion in equity and debt financing for the acquisition, which covers the $44 billion price tag and closing costs.
Banks, including Morgan Stanley MS.N and Bank of America Corp BAC.N, have committed to provide $13 billion of debt financing to support the deal.
Equity investors, including Oracle Corp ORCL.N co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, will pitch in with $7.1 billion.
The closure of the deal will put to rest months of speculation that the erratic entrepreneur would abandon the takeover.
Musk has touted himself as an advocate of free speech and has been critical of Twitterโs approach to monitoring violent or hateful content, which has led to bans on many prominent conservative voices.
