The board of micro-blogging platform Twitter has unanimously recommended that shareholders approve the proposed $44 billion sale of the company to billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
According to AP report, Musk restated his desire to move forward with the acquisition last week during a virtual meeting with Twitter employees. However, shares of Twitter remain far below his offering price, signalling considerable doubt that it will happen.
On Tuesday at the Qatar Economic Forum in an interview with Bloomberg, Musk listed the approval of the deal by Twitter shareholders as one of several ‘unresolved matters’ related to the deal.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, Twitter’s board of directors said that it "unanimously recommends that you vote (for) the adoption of the merger agreement." If the deal were to close now, investors in the company would pocket a profit of $15.22 for each share they own.
However, Twitter shares were essentially flat just before the opening bell on Tuesday and far short of the $54.20 per-share that Musk has offered to pay for each. The company’s stock last reached that level on April 5 when it offered Musk a seat on the board before he had offered to buy all of social media platform.
On the other hand, Musk, while speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum, said a 10 per cent cut in salaried staff at Tesla will happen over three months, as he predicted a US recession was more likely than not.
His remarks were his most detailed explanation of job cut plans and his first in-person appearance since Reuters reported at the start of this month that the company needed to cut staff by about 10 per cent and was pausing hiring worldwide.