Twitter shares jumped around 6% to $39.15 in extended trading. Alternatively, Twitter could sue Musk to force him to proceed with the deal, although experts think that is highly unlikely.Įven if shareholders approve proposals, it will be non-binding, said Donna Hitscherich, a professor of finance at Columbia Business School. If Musks walks away, he could be on the hook for a $1bn breakup fee. That the discussions are playing out publicly, on Twitter no less, only adds to the chaos.Įxperts say Musk cannot unilaterally place the deal on hold. The sharp turnaround makes little sense except as a tactic to scuttle or renegotiate a deal that is becoming increasingly costly for him, experts said last week. But the Tesla CEO said in May the deal cannot progress until the platform proves that fewer than 5% of its users are fake or spam accounts. Musk in April reached a deal to buy Twitter at $54.20 a share. Twitter’s board initially voted to adopt a “poison pill” that limited Musk’s ability to raise his stake in the company, but later voted unanimously to accept his buyout offer. The vote on Durban’s role could indicate skepticism among shareholders of Musk’s plan or his willingness to pay what he offered, but investors are expected to overwhelmingly approve the deal. So the fact that his ally has been removed from the board is not surprising,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh. “The Twitter board has not embraced Elon Musk and his vision for Twitter. Investors also blocked the re-election of a Musk ally to the board, voting against Egon Durban, the co-head of private equity firm Silver Lake, who partnered with Musk on his abandoned bid to take the electric carmaker private. Investors re-elected Patrick Pichette, a general partner at Inovia Capital, to the board. Several proposals spoke to the deep existential conflict that has been playing out among Twitter’s users, employees and shareholders.ĭorsey’s term as a board member expired on Wednesday. The other sought more disclosure on the company’s lobbying activities. One called for an audit of the company’s “impacts on civil rights and non-discrimination” and referred to “‘anti-racism’ programs that seek to establish ‘racial/social equity’” as “themselves deeply racist”. Two proposals brought by conservative-leaning groups failed to garner enough votes to pass. Investors at the meeting preliminarily approved a proposal by the New York state common retirement fund that called for a report on Twitter’s policies and procedures around political contributions using corporate funds. Still, the shareholders raising proposals for a vote frequently invoked the Tesla CEO’s name. The details of Musk’s financing plans were made public on the day that Twitter shareholders gathered for their regularly scheduled meeting.Ī vote on Musk’s plan to buy the social media platform was not on the agenda, but will take will take place at a yet-undetermined date in the future. The latest filing comes after Musk said last week his offer to buy Twitter would not move forward until the company shows proof that spam bots account for less than 5% of the platform’s total users, a move analysts suggest is meant to pressure Twitter to accept a lower sale price. But he reduced it to $6.25bn earlier this month after bringing in co-investors. Musk originally took a $12.5bn margin loan against stock of his electric car maker company Tesla to help fund his purchase of Twitter. The world’s richest man is also in talks with shareholders, including former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, for additional financing commitments to fund the deal, he said in the filing.
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