Elon Musk and Twitter have kicked off talks over his proposed $43 billion takeover deal, reports say

• Twitter is in talks with Elon Musk over his proposed $43 billion takeover offer, multiple reports say.
• A deal could be finalized as soon as this week, The WSJ reported.
• Musk said last week he’d secured $46.5 billion financing to purchase Twitter.

Twitter has kicked off talks with Elon Musk over his $43 billion offer to acquire the social-media company, according to multiple reports.

The two sides met Sunday to discuss the deal proposed by Musk, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times said, each citing sources familiar with the matter. An agreement could be finalized as soon as this week but there’s no guarantee a deal will be sealed, The Journal said.

The deal talks represent a significant thawing of Twitter’s earlier position on Musk’s bid. On Monday last week, the company laid out a so-called “poison pill” defence to block Musk’s offer. However, by Thursday, Musk had detailed financing plans to secure as much as $46.5 billion to buy Twitter – something likely to have made Twitter’s board think again.

Twitter executives met Sunday to re-examine Musk’s takeover offer before talks began later with the billionaire, Reuters reported.

Negotiations between Musk and the board ran into the early hours of Monday, and Twitter was nearing a deal with Musk but the situation remains fluid, The Times reported, citing two sources.

Twitter declined to comment.

Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said in a note to clients Sunday that Wall Street would interpret news of the deal talks as “the beginning of the end for Twitter as a public company, with Musk likely now on a path to acquire the company unless a second bidder comes into the mix.”

Ives added: “The board could officially reject Musk’s bid and then a hostile tender offer will likely begin this week putting further pressure on the Board with their back against the wall in this Game of Thrones battle for Twitter.”

Musk has already made cryptic references to a possible tender offer, which would involve him appealing directly to shareholders to buy up their stock above market price, circumventing Twitter’s board.

In early April, Musk disclosed he held a 9.2% stake in Twitter. Soon after, he offered to buy Twitter outright for $54.20 a share.

The Tesla billionaire said he was motivated to buy Twitter because he believes Twitter doesn’t serve “free speech” as a public company.

Musk established three holding companies last week as part of his plan to acquire the company.