Twitter Shareholders Near Approval of $44 Billion Sale to Musk

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] As social networking service (SNS) Twitter and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, are engaged in a legal dispute over a $44 billion (approximately 60.4 trillion KRW) acquisition deal, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 12th (local time), citing sources, that Twitter's shareholders' meeting is expected to approve the plan to sell the company to CEO Musk.

According to the report, Twitter's shareholders' meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern Time on the 13th. Shareholders will vote for or against the plan to sell Twitter to CEO Musk by then.

WSJ stated that the majority of Twitter shareholders have cast votes in favor of selling the company. Major shareholders, including fund managers who manage about 20% of Twitter's shares, are known to support the deal between Twitter and CEO Musk. However, CEO Musk, who holds about 10% of Twitter's shares, reportedly had not voted by that afternoon.

This shareholders' meeting comes amid the legal dispute between the company and CEO Musk over the acquisition deal. Earlier, CEO Musk agreed in April to purchase Twitter at $54.20 per share, but three months later in July, he abruptly declared the deal void, citing reasons such as Twitter's insufficient disclosure of information regarding fake accounts.

It is analyzed that shareholders agreed to the sale considering that if CEO Musk acquires Twitter, they can sell their shares at a price higher than the current stock price. Twitter's current stock price is $41.41, nearly 24% lower than the planned sale price. When announcing the shareholders' meeting in July, Twitter recommended approval to shareholders, stating that selling the company is desirable and profitable.

WSJ reported that as the likelihood of shareholders passing this increases, the Twitter acquisition case is expected to move to the hands of a Delaware court judge. The Delaware Court of Chancery plans to hold a trial related to this matter for five days starting from the 17th of next month.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing on the 13th, the day of the shareholders' meeting, by summoning Peter Zatko, former security chief and Twitter whistleblower.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.