By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
Elon Musk and his team have made a third attempt to call off the Twitter deal citing a huge number of spam accounts. Twitter has proceeded with the shareholders’ vote.
A majority of the shareholders of Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) said that they are in favor of Elon Musk completing the $44 billion acquisition deal for the social media company. After a major hype about taking over Twitter earlier this year, Elon Musk decided to back off a few weeks later.
Elon Musk has argued that the Twitter platform has too many bot accounts and doesn’t represent the true count of actual users. However, in its recent filing, Twitter has noted that Musk’s decision to back off is “invalid and wrongful”.
In a regulatory filing on Monday, Twitter attorneys also pushed back Musk’s third attempt to cancel the acquisition deal. They reiterated their previous arguments stating that Twitter has “breached none of its representations or obligations”. In the filing, the Twitter attorneys wrote:
“As was the case with each of your prior purported terminations, the Musk Parties third purported termination is invalid for the independent reason that Mr. Musk and the other Musk Parties continue to knowingly, intentionally, willfully, and materially breach the Agreement”.
Earlier this year in April, Musk had proposed a deal of $54.20-per-share. However, it looks pricey in the current macro backdrop. Defending his position, Elon Musk said that he wasn’t informed regarding the spam accounts on his platform.
However, as per Monday’s filing with the SEC, Twitter said that it intends to enforce the agreement and close the deal at the price first agreed upon with Musk.
The final shareholders’ voting for whether to approve or reject Musk’s takeover bid will happen on Tuesday. However, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters that a majority have voted in favor.
Musk Pushes to Cancel Twitter Deal
Last Friday, Elon Musk’s legal team sent a letter to Twitter explaining the reason to call off the deal. His team alleged that Twitter paid millions of dollars to whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, which violated the deal.
Last month, Zatko alleged “extreme, egregious deficiencies” by Twitter relating to security, privacy, and content moderation. Musk’s team alleged that Twitter made $7.75 million in payment to Zatko while breaching the takeover agreement. However, Twitter has claimed no breach of any of its obligations. The social media company said:
“As was the case with both your July 8, 2022 and August 29, 2022 purported notices of termination, the purported termination set forth in your September 9, 2022 letter is invalid and wrongful under the Agreement. Twitter has breached none of its representations or obligations under the Agreement, and following the receipt of the approval of Twitter’s stockholders at its September 13, 2022 special meeting, all of the conditions precedent to the closing of the Merger will be satisfied.”
The Twitter-Musk saga is taking a new turn in the tech space. The issue of spam accounts on Twitter remains a matter of key concern. Will Twitter provide the actual number of spam accounts on the platform?