Elon Musk is trying to raise up to $3 billion to pay off expensive Twitter debt amid struggles to keep advertisers: WSJ

• Elon Musk is looking to raise up to $3 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
• It would go toward paying down some of the more expensive debt he took on to buy Twitter. 
• In a tweet asking Musk if the reported fundraising attempt was accurate, the Twitter CEO wrote: "No."

Elon Musk is looking to line up as much as $3 billion to pay off part of the $13 billion loan package he used to acquire Twitter last year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Per the Journal, the Twitter CEO was in talks with potential backers about selling $3 billion in new shares of the company in December, people familiar with the matter said. The new fund raise could be use to pay down the highest cost, unsecured portion of Twitter's $13 billion debt package. 

According to the report, Musk and his advisers were trying to raise the money at the takeover price of $54.20 per share by the end of last year, though prospective investors weren't interested due to Twitter's financial condition.

An account tweeted at Musk after the Wall Street Journal report was published on Wednesday, asking if the story was "accurate."

In response, Musk tweeted "No."

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2023

Fresh cash could provide some relief amid struggles to keep advertisers on the platform. Musk previously said that bankruptcy was a possibility during an all-hands meeting in November. Twitter also suffered a "massive drop in revenue" that followed an exodus of advertisers.

The Journal reported at the end of last year that attempts to hold onto advertisers put off by Musk's revamp of the site were not going well. The report said that about 70% of the biggest spenders before Musk's takeover were no longer spending ad money on the site as of the week ending December 18. Advertising accounted for about 90% of Twitter's revenue in 2021. 

"I now think that Twitter will, in fact, be OK next year," the billionaire CEO said after implementing a range of cost cutting measure, which included a round of widespread layoffs in December.