The saga of the multi-billion-dollar acquisition of popular micro-blogging site Twitter finally seems to be nearing its conclusion. After several twists and turns, the deal is finally back on track. According to a new regulatory filing, Twitter’s board of directors has recommended unanimously that its shareholders approve the $44 billion sale of the company to Tesla CEO and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
It was back in April that Musk, after revealing a stake of 9.2% in the company, offered to buy Twitter. Since then, it has been a roller-coaster ride, some of which you may have noticed from our coverage. From Twitter’s board initially looking to adopt a “poison pill” strategy to putting the deal on hold over the number of spam accounts on the platform, from Musk allegedly violating an NDA to mull over taking it at a lower price, from the filing of a lawsuit to Musk raising his equity component, the entire journey has been nothing short of dramatic.
Musk recently said that he was entitled to conduct his own survey of spam accounts since he believed that Twitter’s report that there were no more than 5% of bot accounts on its platform was not true. In response, Twitter said that it would cooperatively share the information in order to consummate the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement.
And now, it seems that we were finally reaching the end of the three-month-long journey, which will see the SpaceX and Tesla CEO take over Twitter, a platform he is known to have a strong presence on, and unlock what he said was his “extraordinary potential.”
Twitter’s shares rose by about 3% to reach $38.98 before the opening bell on Tuesday. It later fell to $38.12, but rose a little and is currently trading at $38.46, which is far lower than the price of $54.20 per share that Musk has offered to pay to take over the popular micro-blogging site.
The filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that the board of directors of Twitter had said that it “unanimously recommends that you vote (for) the adoption of the merger agreement.”
Additionally, it unanimously recommended Twitter’s shareholders to approve the compensation “that will or may become payable by Twitter to its named executive officers in connection with the merger” and “the adjournment of the special meeting, from time to time, to a later date or dates, if necessary or appropriate, to solicit additional proxies if there are insufficient votes to adopt the merger agreement at the time of the special meeting.”
If the deal is finally sealed, then Twitter’s investors will be able to have a profit of $15.22 for every share they own.
