Twitter shareholders approve Elon Musk takeover bid

Elon Musk

Twitter shareholders have approved the US$43 billion takeover attempt from Elon Musk – two months after the world’s richest man said he was pulling out of the deal.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that “a majority of Twitter’s shareholders” voted in favour of the deal ahead of the deadline on Tuesday afternoon. This was subsequently confirmed by Twitter on a call, with the social media company saying that its preliminary count showed it had enough votes to approve the deal.

On paper the move is an about-face from shareholders who were initially opposed to a takeover when Musk made his initial approach in April. However, since Musk announced he was pulling out, Twitter has encouraged investors to accept his offer.

Now that Twitter’s shareholders have voted for the deal, the company can continue its lawsuit to make Musk follow through on his offer – an offer which included a US$1 billion termination fee and saw Musk forgo his right to due diligence. 

While some have speculated that Musk’s Twitter takeover was nothing more than a hollow publicity stunt, the billionaire said that he was pulling out due to a lack of reporting of fake and spam accounts.

Musk and Twitter will go to trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery next month. Musk’s party will argue that the fake accounts artificially inflated Twitter’s price, while Twitter will push to close the deal and argue that the complaints are an excuse for backing out. 

Former Twitter head of security Peiter Zatko filed a whistleblower complaint against Twitter in July, alleging that the company failed to protect sensitive user data and lied about security problems. Musk last week received permission to include Zatko’s allegations into his countersuit against the social media platform.