Business | Bitter tweet

Twitter’s shareholders approve Elon Musk’s $44bn offer

No duh

FILE - Tesla CEO Elon Musk introduces the Cybertruck at Tesla's design studio Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019, in Hawthorne, Calif. Peiter Zatko, the former Twitter security chief who’s accused the company of negligence with privacy and security in a whistleblower complaint, will testify before Congress on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. Zatko’s accusations are also playing into Musk’s battle with Twitter to get out of his $44 billion bid to buy the company. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)

Sep 15th 2022

With a fortune of $270bn or thereabouts, Elon Musk is not a man strapped for cash. Thank goodness, for the entrepreneur may soon be compelled to make a sizeable donation to his favourite social-media platform. On September 13th shareholders of Twitter voted to approve the $44bn buy-out offer Mr Musk made in April. The decision was a no-brainer, given that the company’s market value currently languishes below $32bn. In his capacity as Twitter’s largest shareholder, with a 9.6% stake, he would no doubt accept his offer. As the acquirer, he is trying to wriggle out of the deal. Twitter, armed with a bulletproof takeover agreement, is having none of it. A Delaware court will decide the buy-out’s fate in October.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Bitter tweet”