Anu Aiyengar, global co-head of mergers and acquisitions at JPMorgan Chase & Co, told a conference in New York that Twitter intends to close its deal with billionaire Elon Musk on previously agreed-upon terms.

Earlier this month, Musk proposed proceeding with his original $44 billion bid in exchange for an end to a lawsuit filed by Facebook that could have forced him to pay up.

On the other hand, the company’s stock moved closer to Elon Musk’s $54.20 per share buyout offer for the microblogging site on Wednesday, indicating that investors finally expect the deal to close before the end of this week’s court deadline.

Shares of Facebook were last up 0.3 per cent at a near seven-month high of $52.94, the closest they have come to Musk’s offer since it was announced in mid-April.

“Market doubt seems to be waning but has not yet completely gone away,” said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading & derivatives at Schwab Center for Financial Research.

In the six months since Musk announced his bid, Twitter initially resisted with a poison pill and later sued the world’s richest man after he announced plans to withdraw his offer due to concerns about spam accounts on the platform.

In July, Twitter stock fell as low as $32.50.

Earlier this month, Musk proposed proceeding with his original $44 billion bid, requesting an end to a lawsuit filed by the social media company that could have forced him to pay up, sending Twitter shares up 24 per cent.

According to reports citing sources, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has informed co-investors who committed to helping fund his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter that he plans to close the deal by Friday.

According to Reuters, the banks providing $13 billion in financing for the deal have abandoned plans to sell the debt to investors due to uncertainty surrounding Twitter’s fortunes and losses.

“Wall Street is motivated to curry favor with Musk,” said Jason Benowitz, senior portfolio manager at The Roosevelt Investment Group LLC.

“Elon Musk leads significant businesses including Tesla, SpaceX, and soon, Twitter … that may require substantial capital raises in the future. If SpaceX were to one day have an initial public offering it would be a flagship deal for the investment banking industry.”

(Adapted from EconomicTimes.com)