Twitter shareholders meet amid Elon Musk’s takeover drama

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At Twitter’s regularly scheduled shareholder meeting Wednesday, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk’s $44 billion bid for the social platform was not voted on. This vote will take place at an unspecified date in the future.

CEO Parag Agrawal said initially that executives would not answer any questions about the proposal. A question was even hit asking what would happen to their shares if a shareholder bought Twitter and took it private. (In this case, the shareholder will be paid the agreed purchase price for each share and the stock will be delisted).

But the drama surrounding his proposal – almost entirely created by Musk himself – threatened to spill over into Wednesday’s trading. Shareholders bidding for the vote often mentioned his name. A proposal by the New York State Joint Pension Fund called for a report on Twitter’s policies and procedures regarding political contributions using corporate funds. Passed in pre-vote.

Two proposals by conservative-leaning groups failed to garner enough votes to pass. One called for an audit of the company’s “impact on civil rights and non-discrimination” and referred to “anti-racist” programs that seek to establish “racial/social equality” as “they are deeply racist”. The other sought further clarification on the company’s lobbying activities.

Musk promised that the takeover of Twitter would help rid the social media platform of pesky “spam bots.” But he argues – without providing any proof – these automated accounts may be too much for the deal to move forward.

Experts said last week that the sharp turnaround by the world’s richest man meant little other than a tactic to break or renegotiate an increasingly costly deal. The fact that everything—no less on Twitter—is played publicly only adds to the chaos in Musk’s proposal, which was constant even before he did it.

Earlier in May, the mercurial billionaire tweeted that the deal was “pending” as Twitter wanted to determine the number of spam and fake accounts on the social media platform after claiming its own estimate was too low.

Experts say Musk cannot unilaterally suspend the deal, but that hasn’t stopped him from acting like he could. If he walks away, he could be hooked for a $1 billion breakup fee. Alternatively, Twitter could sue Musk for forcing him to continue with the deal, although experts think it’s unlikely.

Twitter shares were up $1.09, or 3%, at $36.83 in early trading Wednesday afternoon. Musk’s offer is $54.20 per share.

Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC.



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