Elon Musk Set to Close Twitter Deal on Friday?

Could the Elon Musk-Twitter saga come to a close this week?

Musk reportedly informed bankers that he intends to close the Twitter deal on Friday.

JUST IN – Elon Musk informs bankers that he intends to close the Twitter deal on Friday — Bloomberg

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) October 25, 2022

BREAKING: @ElonMusk has reportedly informed bankers that he intends to close the Twitter deal on Friday

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 25, 2022

Elon Musk reportedly pledges to close $44-billion Twitter deal by Friday in call with bankers https://t.co/vbuc6KITEz

— The Globe and Mail (@globeandmail) October 25, 2022

WATCH:

NEW: Elon Musk pledged Monday to close the acquisition of Twitter by Friday in a video conference call with bankers helping fund the deal. Ed Ludlow has the details https://t.co/WQg3XwvxRu pic.twitter.com/dyH1OP3ByV

— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) October 25, 2022

Elon Musk yesterday pledged to close the acquisition of Twitter Inc. by Friday in a video conference call with bankers helping fund the deal, according to people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg News reports.

The banks, which are providing $13 billion of debt financing, have finished putting together the final credit agreement and are in the process of signing the documentation, one of the last steps before actually sending the cash to Musk, said the people.

The Wall Street lenders, led by Morgan Stanley, had already been preparing in recent weeks to fund the debt, Bloomberg previously reported. But nothing is ever certain with Musk, the mercurial billionaire who only weeks ago was seeking to back out of the deal. These latest developments suggest he is in the final stages of closing the transaction by a court-issued Oct. 28 deadline.

The banks are expected to receive one of the last formalities — a borrowing notice — on Tuesday, and the cash is expected to be held in escrow on Thursday, the people said.

Musk already has $12.5 billion in debt financing lined up from his buddies at the big banks (more on that later), but that leaves about $32 billion to be accounted for.

And while plenty of folks were willing to get in on the action when the economy was humming, there isn’t much appetite these days.

On Friday, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives highlighted what many have speculated for a while: Musk will need to sell anywhere in the range of $5 billion to $10 billion of his Tesla stock to finance the deal.

“It’s pretty simple, the more investors that bail on this deal is the more money that Musk needs to contribute and therefore sell more Tesla stock,” Ives wrote in a note.