Musk in talks with Thoma Bravo for partnering on Twitter bid

Tesla’s Chief Executive Elon Musk is in talks with private-equity firm Thoma Bravo about partnering on a possible takeover bid for Twitter.

Thoma Bravo is a Chicago-based buyout firm focused on the technology sector and is expected to be the key to Musk moving forward with a binding offer for Twitter. Thoma Bravo, like Musk, was interested in buying Twitter. Now, Thoma Bravo would likely only move forward with Musk, or not at all.

Musk wants to spend $10 billion to $15 billion on buying Twitter, and needs partners to make up the rest of the $21 billion. Recently, Musk said he has lined up $46.5 billion in debt and equity financing to buy Twitter and was considering taking his offer directly to shareholders.

Musk said he also has arranged $25.5 billion of committed debt financing through Morgan Stanley in the form of loans against Twitter itself and his personal stock. It is said that Musk has had little difficulty getting interest from co-investors that have participated in funding rounds for his other ventures including Space X.

A Twitter spokesperson said, “We are in receipt of the updated, non-binding proposal from Elon Musk, which provides additional information regarding the original proposal and new information on potential financing. As previously announced and communicated to Mr. Musk directly, the Board is committed to conducting a careful, comprehensive and deliberate review to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders.”