Key Takeaways:
- Twitter shareholders have approved a $44 billion dollar buyout by Elon Musk
- Musk, who had initiated a hostile takeover, backed out of the deal months later
- Twitter has since taken Elon Musk to court over his refusal to buy the company
YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — Elon Musk’s troubles with Twitter seem unending. But, in a new development, the company’s shareholders have voted to approve a deal with the world’s richest man to buy the company for $44 billion.
The decision comes after the social media giant’s board made a short conference call with investors one day before the Tuesday deadline. This development means that Twitter will try to force Musk to buy the company in court.
Earlier this year, when Musk first made his plans to buy Twitter, the company’s shareholders rejected the hostile takeover. However, they later agreed to sell the company to the Tesla CEO.
Can Elon Musk refuse to buy Twitter?
As CoinChapter reported in May 2022, Musk put his purchase deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting the calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”
Days earlier, he had clarified that his first task after buying the company would be to clean the social network of the various bots and fake profiles.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk returned from his commitment to acquiring the company in July. The multi-billionaire entrepreneur alleged Twitter had failed to offer sufficient information about the number of borts on the platform. He had been asking the company for the same for over two months.
Musk’s legal team filed a termination letter, claiming “Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of the Merger Agreement.”
Following Musk’s refusal to go ahead with the purchase, the company took him to court. As CoinChapter reported, Musk even dragged former CEO Jack Dorsey into the mess by sending him a subpoena in the matter.
However, now that the company shareholders have agreed to sell the company to Musk, people wonder if he can back out without legal consequences.
Meanwhile, Twitter’s former security chief turned whistleblower, Peiter Zatko, dealt a harsh blow by claiming the company kept foreign agents on its payroll. This, according to Zatko, harmed US national security.
Last month, he accused the company of misleading investors about the number of bots on the platform.
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Musk sends fresh refusal to Twitter
In light of the revelations by Peiter Zatko, Elon Musk has sent a third letter to Twitter attempting to terminate his acquisition plans. Addressing the company’s chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, Musk cited the multimillion-dollar severance payment to Zatko as a valid reason to end the deal.
According to Musk’s legal team, Twitter’s romance with Zatko violated the acquisition agreement with the billionaire. The company included Musk’s letter in a filing with the SEC on Friday.
Meanwhile, Twitter responded, claiming it did not breach any agreement with Elon Musk.
“As was the case with both your July 8, 2022 and August 29, 2022 purported notices of termination, the purported termination set forth in your September 9, 2022 letter is invalid and wrongful under the Agreement… Twitter has breached none of its representations or obligations under the Agreement,”
it said.
To make things tough, Elon also cited the Russian invasion of Ukraine as one of the reasons to put his plans to acquire Twitter on hold.
In a text message to one of his Morgan Stanley bankers, Musk allegedly said he was considering exiting the merger agreement due to the possibility of World War III.
“Let’s slow down just a few days. Putin’s speech tomorrow is really important. It won’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re heading into World War 3,”
company lawyer read from Musk’s texts during the hearing.
Twitter is currently valued at around $32 billion, considerably lower than the $44 billion offer from Elon Musk.
With unending excuses, it remains to be seen if Musk can avoid buying the company. The social media giant’s trial against Musk is scheduled to begin on Oct. 17 in Delaware Chancery Court.
