Twitter’s board began negotiations with Elon Musk over a potential takeover of the social media giant and could accept a deal as soon as today, Reuters reported, following pressure from shareholders in the wake of the billionaire revealing his financing for the deal late last week.

The news website’s sources claimed Twitter’s leadership team were investigating whether a deal would be possible on terms attractive to the company and not necessarily on accepting the bid as it currently stands.

In his initial disclosure, Musk stated the offer was his “best and final”.

The billionaire’s shock bid of $41.4 billion to buy the company initially resulted in defensive measures being taken by Twitter’s board.

However, following the disclosure of the financing for the deal and media speculation on subsequent shareholder pressure, Reuters indicated discussions began yesterday (24 April).

Various other publications including The New York Times and Bloomberg claimed Twitter’s board were open to a potential deal following a meeting held over the weekend.

As revelations about the board’s apparent softening stance on a sale broke, Musk was using Twitter to seemingly stoke the platform’s users into frenzy about the status of the bid. He posted a vague “moving on…” message, then three hours later added it was in relation to comments made about Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.