Banks start funding debt portion of Musk's $44B Twitter takeover - WSJ

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Banks have begun funding their $13B portion of Elon Musk's $44B deal to take over Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), the WSJ reports, as a Friday deadline to complete the transaction nears.

Musk sent the required borrowing notice to the banks late Tuesday, according to the report - launching a process that will result in signed contracts and the lenders depositing funds into an escrow account, likely on Thursday.

Those funding notices with 3-5 days to deal closure usually go unnoticed, but as the WSJ notes, this deal has seen more drama than most.

Musk was tweeting away in Twitter headquarters Wednesday, and changed his Twitter biography to read "Chief Twit" and his location "Twitter HQ," among the many signs that the deal was set to come to fruition after a multi-month saga.

After he changed his mind about buying the company and tried to terminate their merger deal, Twitter (TWTR) filed suit in the Delaware Court of Chancery - and with an Oct. 17 trial date approaching, the judge in the case stayed the trial after Musk agreed to close the deal by Oct. 28.

Musk was set to address employees there Friday.

In postmarket trading at 7:34 p.m., Twitter stock was trading up 1.1% to $53.93, setting the deal spread to Musk's $54.20 per share price at a mere 27 cents.