A majority of Twitter Inc's shareholders have voted in favour of the social media company's $44 billion sale to Elon Musk setting the stage for the October trial in the Delaware Courts. Even as the deadline for the shareholder vote on the deal is Tuesday but enough investors had voted by Monday evening for the outcome to be certain, reported Reuters citing its sources.
Musk had backed out of the Twitter deal stating he was misled over the spam accounts on the platform and was not informed about a pay settlement the company reached with one of its top executives.
It was expected that shareholders will vote in favour after a stock market downturn made Musk's $54.20-per-share deal for Twitter, which was signed in April, look pricey in the current environment. Twitter shares are presently hovering around $41.
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Meanwhile, Twitter on Monday clarified its stance over the payment to the whistleblower saying it did not breach any terms of its sale to Musk, reported the agency. Twitter's lawyers pointed out that Musk's reasons for wanting to back out of the deal were "invalid and wrongful."
Last week, the world's richest man made another attempt to evade the deal. Musk’s lawyer argued Twitter's failed to seek his consent before paying $7.75 million to whistleblower Peiter Zatko and that lawyers violated the merger agreement, which restricts when Twitter could make such payments.
The whistleblower is scheduled to meet the US Senate Judiciary committee on Tuesday to discuss the allegations.
"With the Musk camp now being allowed to include the Zatko claims in its testimony for Delaware, tomorrow's hearing will be closely watched by the Street," Wedbush analysts wrote in a note.
The Twitter vs Musk trial is scheduled to start on October 17.