Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said in an SEC filing he’d effectively raised the amount of money he’s personally committed to raising for his planned $44 billion acquisition of Twitter (TWTR) and that he's in talks with Jack Dorsey to participate in the deal.
The move appears to suggest that the troubled and controversial transaction may yet go forward.
Musk and Twitter announced plans in late April for him to acquire the company at $54.20 a share.
That came after Musk earlier announced he had accumulated a large stake in the micro blogging company.
Dorsey, a founder and former chief executive, of Twitter, has been a supporter of Musk's acquisition plans.
However, since the announcement Musk has raised questions about how many Twitter accounts are actually genuine and how many are spam or bots.
He has repeatedly derided the company's claims that only about 5% of its accounts are fake or spam.
Musk even tweeted that the deal is on hold until he can get better answers from Twitter management.
Shares of Twitter have been trading well below the deal price as Musk has campaigned for more information about spam and bots on the network.
For its part, Twitter has held tight to the deal’s terms, which include a $1 billion breakup fee. Earlier on Wednesday the company's shareholders dealt Musk a blow by voting against re-electing a Musk ally as a director of the company.
According to the filing on Wednesday, Musk allowed a portion of a margin loan commitment letter to provide $6.25 billion in financing for the deal to lapse.
The effect of the move was “to increase the aggregate principle amount of the equity commitment [from Musk] to $33.5 billion,” according to the filing.
In addition, Musk "is having, and will continue to have, discussions with certain existing holders of Common Stock (including Jack Dorsey) regarding the possibility of contributing" to the transaction.
Shares of Twitter rose nearly 5% in after-hours trading Wednesday.
Shares of Tesla slid 0.5% in after-hours trading. The stock is off more than 40% since Musk and Twitter announced the acquisition deal.
