Majority of Twitter shareholders vote in favor of closing $44 billion acquisition deal with Elon Musk

The majority of Twitter shareholders have said they are in favor of Elon Musk completing the $44 billion acquisition deal for the social media company. After much hype about the Twitter takeover earlier this year, Elon Musk decided to back out a few weeks later.

Elon Musk argued that the Twitter platform has too many bot accounts and does not represent the actual number of users. However, in its recent filing, Twitter noted that Musk’s decision to withdraw is “invalid and unjustified“.

In a regulatory filing Monday, Twitter’s lawyers also rebuffed Musk’s third attempt to undo the acquisition deal. They reiterated their previous arguments, saying Twitter has “violated any of its representations or obligations“. In the filing, Twitter’s lawyers wrote:

“As was the case with each of your prior purported terminations, the Musk Parties’ third purported termination is invalid for the independent reason that Mr. Musk and the other Musk Parties continue to knowingly, intentionally, willfully, and materially breach the Agreement.”

Earlier in the year, in April, Musk had proposed a deal at $54.20 per share. However, that price seems high in the current macroeconomic environment. Defending his position, Elon Musk said that he had not been informed of spam accounts on his platform.

However, according to Monday’s SEC filing, Twitter said it intends to implement the agreement and close the deal at the price originally agreed upon with Musk.

The final shareholder vote on whether to approve or reject Musk’s takeover bid will take place Tuesday. However, people familiar with the matter told Reuters that a majority voted in favor of the offer.

Musk pushes to cancel Twitter deal

Last Friday, Elon Musk’s legal team sent a letter to Twitter explaining the reasons for canceling the deal. His team alleges that Twitter paid millions of dollars to whistleblower Peiter “Mudge“Zatko, which is a violation of the agreement.

Last month, Peiter Zatko denounced “extreme and glaring deficiencies“of Twitter’s security, privacy and content moderation. Musk’s team alleged that Twitter paid Zatko $7.75 million while breaching the buyout agreement. However, Twitter said it did not breach any of its obligations. The social media company said:

“As was the case with your two purported notices of termination of July 8, 2022 and August 29, 2022, the purported termination set forth in your September 9, 2022 letter is invalid and unlawful under the Agreement. Twitter has not breached any of its representations or obligations under the Agreement, and following receipt of Twitter’s stockholder approval at its September 13, 2022 special meeting, all conditions precedent to the closing of the Merger will be satisfied. “

The Twitter-Musk saga takes another turn in the technology space. The issue of spam accounts on Twitter remains a major concern. Will Twitter provide the actual number of spam accounts on the platform?