Shareholders of Twitter (TWTR) have approved Elon Musk’s $44 billion U.S. buyout offer ahead
of an upcoming trial that will determine if the deal proceeds as planned.
Twitter shareholders voted to accept Musk’s $54.20 U.S. per share offer to acquire the social
media giant.
Musk, who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of electric vehicle maker Tesla (TSLA) made the
takeover offer this past April but has since withdrawn it, leading to an October trial that will
decide if Musk needs to honour the deal and purchase Twitter for the agreed upon price.
Twitter’s board of directors had encouraged investors to ratify the deal.
The company said 98.6% of the votes supported the deal. Musk, Twitter’s largest shareholder,
didn’t vote. He owned nearly 10% of Twitter, or about 73 million shares, when he agreed to
acquire the company this past spring.
However, in July, Musk canceled the agreement, claiming that Twitter misled him about the size
of the company’s user base and the number of spam accounts on the platform.
Twitter denies those accusations and has sued Musk in a Delaware court to force him to
complete the acquisition. Musk has counter-sued Twitter.
A trial to decide the matter is set to begin on October 17 in Delaware Chancery Court.
Twitter’s stock is down 2% this year and trading at $41.74 U.S. per share.
