Twitter’s stockholders have made their voices heard. They’ve officially voted in favour of the company’s $US44 ($61) billion acquisition deal with Elon Musk. The vote result was announced in a very brief shareholder meeting on Tuesday, which lasted less than 10 minutes and concluded without a Q&A.
Earlier reports of the likely affirmative outcome came from Reuters and The Wall Street Journal, both based on an unspecified number of anonymous sources.
The official deadline for the vote was today, during the virtual shareholder meeting, which was held at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern. However, even prior to the meeting, preliminary vote tallies were sufficient to make the outcome clear. The board did not announce the final tabulation of the vote, but it’s safe to assume it was a landslide.
Which makes sense, because Musk’s purchase offer is undeniably a good deal for Twitter and it’s stakeholders. Under the terms agreed to on April 25, each Twitter share would be sold for $US54.20 ($75), which is about 30% higher than the current stock prick of $US41.41 ($57)/share, as of writing this.
The sale would allow stakeholders to cash out at a price that hasn’t showed up on the New York Stock Exchange since October 2021, and is equal to high price target estimates for the company. Previously, Twitter’s board unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the Musk acquisition.
In fact, the only prominent company shareholder who is likely vehemently against the deal moving forward is Musk himself, who purchased more than a 9% stake in the social media platform in early April. That buy-up happened in the lead up to the official purchase deal, which Musk has been trying to back out of for months now.
Musk has now made three official attempts to weasel out of the deal, by claiming that Twitter violated the terms of the Merger Agreement. First his arguments were focused solely on the platform’s bot data. Now though, they’ve expanded to include a $US7 ($10) million settlement paid to former company executive and whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko. Musk’s legal team claim that the payout goes against a severance clause in the Agreement.
But Twitter has repeatedly denied Musk’s allegations and their relevance to the purchase. The company continues to push for the deal to go through, and is suing Musk in Delaware court to try to force the matter.
The Merger Agreement requires Musk to vote his shares in favour of his own purchase. However, as of Monday, WSJ reported that Musk had yet to do so and likely wouldn’t. Because the Tesla CEO claims that Twitter has already violated their agreement, it would make sense for him to act as if the agreement is void, and not vote at all.
Twitter’s shareholders have spoken. Now, the only lingering questions are those surrounding Musk’s attempt to back out of the deal, and whether or not Twitter’s ongoing lawsuit against the world’s richest man will favour the company or the billionaire.
Update 9/13/2022, 1:20 p.m. ET: This post has been updated with additional information from a Twitter shareholder meeting.