Twitter is said to be nearing a deal to sell itself to Elon Musk, 11 days after the SpaceX and Tesla CEO shocked the industry by offering to buy the company in a deal valuing it at more than $41 billion.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a deal could be finalized as soon as today.

Twitter's board met Sunday to evaluate Musk's offer to buy all the shares of the company he does not currently own for $54.20 each. A source said that discussions about Musk's bid have turned serious. Reports that a deal is near come after Musk revealed that he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to acquire the company last week.

Musk has said Twitter needs to go private in order to grow and become an open platform for free speech.

"I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy," Musk said in his offer letter to Twitter.

"However, since making my investment, I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company."

The sale would represent an admission by Twitter that its new chief executive Parag Agrawal, who took over in November, is not making enough traction in making the company more profitable, despite being on track to meet ambitious financial goals for the company set for 2023. Twitter's shares were trading higher than Musk's offer price as recently as November.

Some users claim they may quit Twitter if Musk takes over.