Twitter shareholders approve Elon Musk’s $44bn acquisition deal

*Global tech giant Twitter discloses a preliminary count has indicated the company’s shareholders endorsed American billionaire businessman Elon Musk’s bid to acquire the microblogging site and social media platform for $44 billion

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

Despite his alleged attempt to terminate the contract, Twitter has disclosed that a preliminary count indicated the company’s shareholders endorsed American billionaire businessman Elon Musk’s bid to acquire the microblogging site and social media platform for $44 billion.

ConsumerConnect learnt Twitter Tuesday, September 13, 2022, said the tally came during a shareholders’ meeting that lasted just minutes, with most of the votes having been cast online.

American billionaire businessman Elon Musk (right)

It is recalled that Twitter has sued Musk to complete the deal, and a trial is set for October this year.

Musk, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla, has cancelled the $44 billion Twitter takeover deal over the actual presence of bots on the leading social media platform, agency report said.

Although the Big Tech  has claimed that Musk is probably inventing reasons to jettison the acquisition of the company, Musk’s lawyers also alleged that Twitter is the one holding back the deal by dragging its feet and providing insufficient data to the billionaire’s requests.

Earlier, Musk had agreed  April 2022, to buy Twitter and take it private, offering $54.20 a share and vowing to loosen the company’s policing of content and to root out fake accounts.

Subsequently, as part of the deal, Musk and Twitter had agreed to pay each other a $1 billion breakup fee if either was responsible for the deal collapsing.

The billionaire businessman also claimed that Twitter has failed to provide him with enough information about the number of fake accounts on its service.

However, the company estimated for the past several years, fewer than 5 percent of mDAU are spam or fake accounts on Twitter.

Musk’s attorneys also contend that Twitter has refused to provide them with raw data that it maintains in the ordinary course of business, and which requires significant “machine time” and software development to be processed and analysed by expert witnesses by a proposed Monday deadline.

Twitter, August this year, said that it was making a “fire hose” of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets available to Musk.

Meanwhile, billions of Dollars are at stake, but so is the future of Twitter, which Tesla Chief Musk has said should allow any legal speech — an absolutist position that has sparked fears the network could be used to incite violence.