Twitter says enough shareholders have already voted to go forward with Musk sale

Twitter executives have said this week that enough shareholders had already voted by Monday evening to go forward with the sale of the company to Elon Musk, who has attempted to walk away from the $44 billion deal in recent months after making the offer in April.

Shareholders are able to vote up until 10PM on Thursday, but Twitter sources told Reuters on Monday that enough votes had already been cast to decide the vote to move ahead with the sale.

Musk’s original offer to purchase the company for $52.40 a share raised eyebrows at the time, and since then Twitter shares have dropped to $41 a share. Musk has said he is walking away from the deal, claiming Twitter misled him about user numbers and bot numbers on the platform.

Twitter has said Musk cannot contractually walk away from the deal, and is moving ahead. The company has filed a lawsuit against Musk to keep him on track with the merger contract, alleging the Tesla CEO is trying to walk away from the deal because his personal wealth has decreased, not for any legal reasons. The trial is scheduled to begin on October 17 in Delaware.

Musk has also alleged Twitter failed to disclose a settlement totaling $7 million with whistleblower Peiter Zatko who accused the company in July saying the platform was rife with cybersecurity issues that put people in danger. Zatko testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the alleged cybersecurity dangers of Twitter.

“When an influential media platform can be compromised by teenagers, thieves and spies and the company repeatedly creates security problems on their own, this is a big deal for all of us,” he told the panel.