Breaking: Twitter Board Reveals Decision on Musk’s $44 Billion Takeover Bid

Twitter’s board “unanimously recommended” that its shareholders vote to approve Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the social media giant

“The Twitter Board, after considering various factors described in the section of this proxy statement captioned “The Merger— Recommendation of the Twitter Board and Reasons for the Merger,” has unanimously: (1) determined that the merger agreement is advisable and the merger and the other transactions contemplated by the merger agreement are fair to, advisable and in the best interests of Twitter and its stockholders; and (2) adopted and approved the merger,” the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday.

The deal, which is currently expected to close in 2022, would take Twitter private at $54.20 per share.

The filing comes as Musk said in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum that shareholder approval was one of three “unresolved matters” that stands in the way of the deal.

In addition to shareholder approval, Musk said that debt financing for the deal would need to come together. The billionaire has pledged $33.5 billion in equity financing and has received commitments from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc. and the other financial institutions for up to $13 billion in debt financing.

He also said that he is waiting for a resolution to his dispute with Twitter over the total percentage of spam and fake accounts on the platform. Though Twitter has maintained that spam and fake accounts make up less than 5% of its users, Musk believes the figure is at least 20%.

“We’re sort of waiting for a resolution on that matter and that is a very significant matter,” he said.

Shares of Twitter, which are down about 11% year to date, are trading at $37.78 apiece as of the time of publication, well below Musk’s offer.