Twitter shareholders formally accept Musk’s US$44 billion offer he’s desperately trying to get out of

Twitter shareholders formally voted to accept Elon Musk’s US$44 billion offer to take the company private, several outlets reported Tuesday afternoon, a largely expected move that adds to the bizarre, dramatic public showdown between the company and Musk as the world’s wealthiest man exhibits buyer’s remorse.

Twitter announced April 25 it agreed to terms with Musk, 21 days after Musk disclosed he became the company’s largest shareholder, potentially setting the stage for a hostile takeover. It was an odd marriage, considering Musk was a harsh critic of the platform’s policies, and the spark between the two quickly flamed out, as Musk filed paperwork July 8 looking to back out of the deal, blaming the presence of spam and fake accounts on the site.

Twitter subsequently sued Musk in Delaware’s Court of Chancery to force the deal to go through. Musk’s argument was bolstered last month when Twitter’s former head of cybersecurity Peiter Zatko’s whistleblower complaint went public, alleging the company misled investors and regulators on numerous issues, including user privacy and the presence of bots on the site. A Delaware judge ruled last week that Musk could include information from the whistleblower complaint in his countersuit, though the court denied his request to delay the trial.