Topline
Twitter will ask its shareholders to vote on Elon Musk’s offer to buy the social network at a mid-September meeting, just one month before Twitter and Musk are scheduled to go to court over the billionaire’s push to terminate their $44 billion acquisition deal.
Elon Musk participates in a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center on May 27, 2020.
Key Facts
In a Tuesday afternoon regulatory filing, Twitter’s board of directors scheduled a vote on the Musk deal for September 13 and encouraged the company’s shareholders to vote yes, a stance the board has repeated for weeks, even as Musk has sought to call off the agreement.
The company called Musk’s offer “fair to, advisable and in the best interests of Twitter and its stockholders,” and said it remains “committed to closing the merger on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk.”
The social media company and the world’s richest man are set to go to trial at some point in October in Delaware’s Court of Chancery, after Twitter sued Musk earlier this month and asked a state court judge to force him to buy the company at the originally agreed-upon price.
Key Background
Twitter’s legal battle with Musk follows months of confusion since the billionaire first offered to buy the company at $54.20 per share in April. Twitter’s board accepted his offer, but Musk put the deal on hold weeks later, before seeking to terminate the deal last month. Musk has argued Twitter’s estimates for the number of spam accounts on its social network are inaccurate, and claimed the company has failed to provide enough data to back up its figures. However, Twitter’s attorneys say their agreement doesn’t allow Musk to back out over disputes about spam accounts, and insist the company has provided Musk’s team with scores of data to support its estimate that fake accounts make up fewer than 5% of users.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Musk is worth $243.9 billion, mostly due to his stake in electric carmaker Tesla, making him the world’s wealthiest person.
Further Reading
Twitter Argues Musk’s Bid To Delay Trial ‘Fails At Every Level’ (Forbes)
Twitter Sues Elon Musk For Trying To Cancel Acquisition (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/07/26/twitter-shareholders-will-vote-on-elon-musks-purchase-offer-in-september-weeks-before-trial-with-musk/