A majority of Twitter Inc’s shareholders have voted in favour of the social media company’s $44 billion sale to Elon Musk, people familiar with the tally said on Monday. Even though the deadline for the vote is Tuesday, Monday’s tally has pretty much sealed the deal. An official announcement is expected in the coming days.
Twitter and Musk haven’t said anything about the reports yet
Musk has informed Twitter he will not go ahead with the acquisition. He argued that he was misled over the spam accounts on the platform. Moreover, he was not notified of a pay settlement the company reached with one of its top executives. Also, the two sides are scheduled to battle it out in court next month.
Shareholders were widely expected to vote in favor after a stock market downturn made Musk’s $54.20-per-share deal for Twitter. The deal was signed in April and looks pricey in the current environment. Twitter shares are now hovering around $41.
Elon has been coming up with reasons to not go through with the deal
In a letter sent to Twitter on Friday, Musk’s lawyers said Twitter’s failure to seek his consent before paying $7.75 million to Peiter Zatko and his lawyers violated the merger agreement. They say that the agreement restricted when Twitter could make such payments.
Earlier on Monday, Twitter said payments made to a whistleblower did not breach any terms of its sale to Musk after the world’s richest man made another attempt to scrap the deal. Twitter’s lawyers said Musk’s reasons for wanting to back out of the deal were “invalid and wrongful.”
“With the Musk camp now being allowed to include the Zatko claims in its testimony for Delaware, tomorrow’s hearing will be closely watched by the Street,” Wedbush analysts wrote in a note. The Twitter vs Musk trial is scheduled to start on Oct. 17 in Delaware Chancery Court.