- Tuesday, Twitter shareholders agreed to Elon Musk’s $44 billion offer to buy the company and turn it into a private company.
- Musk wants out of the deal, which is why Twitter is suing him for allegedly breaking the terms of the deal.
Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase has been rocky. What appeared like a straightforward, albeit contentious, purchase by the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla sparked a legal battle when he wanted to back out. Twitter’s shareholders have authorized the acquisition deal as a preliminary move before a judicial battle.
CNN reports that most Twitter shareholders approved Elon Musk’s buyout deal. Twitter encouraged its shareholders to accept the proposal despite the magnate’s attempts to terminate it, thus a wide margin of acceptance was expected. Musk’s justification for cancelling the deal was Twitter purportedly undercounting or obscuring spam and bot metrics and whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko’s disclosures hours before the vote.
The approval doesn’t imply Musk owns Twitter. It’ll set up a court battle between the millionaire and the company he considered buying. Musk wants to terminate the agreement based on his objections, while Twitter wants to finalize the acquisition and fulfil the agreement, stating Musk’s criticisms are an excuse to back out of the purchase.
Twitter sued Musk for allegedly breaking the agreement; a mid-October trial is likely.
The judge in the lawsuit recently permitted Musk’s side to modify his counterclaim against Twitter to incorporate whistleblower charges made by a former Twitter security head. Peiter “Mudge” Zatko testified Tuesday before a Senate hearing.
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