Twitter shareholders voted Tuesday to approve Elon Musk’s $44 billion bid to buy the company and take it private.
Recall that this vote comes as Musk seeks to scrap the deal, casting doubt on Twitter’s self-reported percentage of fake accounts and alleging the company was not as forthcoming as it should have been with its explanation of the calculation. Twitter has stood by its figure of less than 5% of monetizable daily active users being spam or fake and has said it’s provided Musk plenty of information meeting the requirements of the deal.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, lost a whopping N3.62 trillion on Tuesday after investors dumped the company’s stock following reports that Twitter shareholders had approved his acquisition offer.
Investors sold the stock for as little as $292.13 per share, a -4.04% decrease from the $304.42 per share sold on Monday. As a result, Musk lost $8.3 billion, and his wealth fell by -3.03%, lowering his total net worth to $265.6 billion.
Tesla shareholders selling their shares may be linked to Musk selling around $8 billion in Tesla stock to fund the deal, and with the shareholders approving his offer, Musk may be forced to sell more shares as Twitter has dragged the billionaire to court to ensure he buys the social media company as agreed.
Their vote is a setback for Musk because it comes at a time when the Tesla majority shareholder is attempting to withdraw from the $54.20 per share offer, representing a total of $44 billion. Twitter’s market capitalization is currently $31.94 billion.
The court case is set for October 17. Still, before the shareholders’ decision, Musk had also attempted to get out of the deal last week by accusing Twitter of breaching their acquisition contract.
Musk said the company paid whistleblower and hacker Peiter Zatko, $7.75 million after the former Security chief released an 84-page whistleblower complaint disclosing the lapses of the social media company.
He explained that not informing him before the payment was made is a breach of court, but Twitter described his statement as “invalid and wrongful.”
