San Francisco, California, US: Shareholders of the US-based microblogging and social networking service, Twitter have voted in favor of a deal with Mr. Elon Musk to buy the company for $44 billion.
The decision was made during a brief conference call with investors from Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.
The development means that the firm will try to force business magnate and investor, Mr. Elon Musk to buy the company through legal procedures. The meeting followed Twitter’s former security Chief Mr. Peter Zatko’s explosive testimony before the US Senate.
Earlier in the year, Twitter had agreed to sell the company to Mr. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. However, the deal fell apart after Mr. Musk accused Twitter of misrepresenting the number of spam and bot accounts on the platform.
Later in May, the Tesla CEO stated that he doesn’t want to buy the company but, Twitter maintains that Mr. Musk can’t back out of the deal which he is legally obligated for.
The microblogging revealed that bots make up less than 5 percent of its monetized daily active users, while, Mr. Musk argues it could be many times higher. Twitter is currently valued $32 billion, considerably below the $44 billion offer from Mr. Musk.
The recent vote could have signaled the end of Twitter’s legal investigation, but shareholders have now given the company the green light to pursue Mr. Musk in court. The two will meet in front of a Delware state court in October. At the hearing, the judge will decide whether or not Mr. Musk should buy the company.
Shortly before the shareholder decision, Twitter whistleblower Mr. Pieter Zatko testified in Washington about alleged security flaws before the Senate Judiciary Committee.