Twitter Inc. shareholders are set to approve the $44 billion takeover that Elon Musk is now trying to exit, according to people familiar with the matter, putting the fate of the deal in the hands of a Delaware judge as the social media company tries to force the billionaire to follow through with the purchase in court.
Early votes show investors approving the deal by a wide margin, the people said, although there’s always a chance the results will change as shareholders can change their votes at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning. Pacific time.
Musk, the company’s largest shareholder with a roughly 10% stake, hadn’t voted his shares one way or another on Monday afternoon and was unlikely to do so given that he alleged that Twitter TWTR,
violated the merger agreement, some people said. The deal requires Musk to vote his shares in favor of the deal, though his support won’t be crucial if enough other investors support him.
Other big Twitter shareholders, including index fund managers who together control about 20% of Twitter shares, are ready to back the deal, some people said.
Musk agreed in April to pay $54.20 per share for Twitter. Shares of the social media company have been trading well below since he tweeted in May that the deal was “on hold”, a prelude to his later decision to pull out of it. This means that many shareholders stand to gain if the deal closes on its original terms. The stock closed Monday at $41.41.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
Also popular on WSJ.com:
For every vacation home dream, there is a harsh financial reality.
The case for you to be bad at something.