Elon Musk may be fighting tooth and nail to get out of his deal to buy Twitter, but the social media company’s shareholders plan to keep him in it.
Twitter (TWTR) shareholders overwhelmingly voted Tuesday in favor of Musk’s $44 billion buyout deal, valued at $54.20 per share. The company’s stock opened Tuesday at just under $41 a share, nearly 25% below the deal price.
A preliminary count showed 98.6% of votes cast on Tuesday were in favor of the deal, Twitter said in a statement.
“Twitter is ready and willing to complete the merger with Mr. Musk’s affiliates immediately, and in any event no later than September 15, 2022, the second business day after all conditions have been satisfied, which is the timeline required by the merger agreement”.
The vote came days after Musk’s third letter on Twitter asking to end their deal, linked to an alleged $7.75 million severance payment the company made to its former security chief Peter Zatko, who later blew the whistle on its alleged security and privacy vulnerabilities.
In the letter, Musk’s lawyers argued that the payment — said to have been made to Zatko and his lawyers on June 28 as part of a separation agreement — violated a provision of the buyout agreement. Twitter agreed not to provide severance pay to employees in amounts outside “the ordinary course of business consistent with past practice,” according to the contract.
Twitter slammed Musk’s latest attempt to get out of the deal as “void and unfair.”
Musk first sent a letter to end the deal in July, alleging that Twitter violated the agreement by misrepresenting the number of spam and fake bot accounts on its platform. Twitter sued Musk to complete the acquisition, accusing the billionaire of using bots as a pretext to get out of a deal he developed buyer’s remorse after the market plunged.
Zatko testified before the US Senate on Tuesday about Twitter’s serious security and privacy vulnerabilities, including the potential foreign intelligence employee on its payroll.
The case between Musk and Twitter is scheduled to go to trial on October 17.
– CNN Business’ Clare Duffy contributed to this report
