Twitter Shareholders Approve Elon Musk's Buyout Amid Whistleblower Testimony

The shareholders' approval comes amid the ongoing testimony of former Twitter employee regarding 'security lapse.'

Twitter shareholders on Tuesday, 13 September, approved a $44 billion buyout deal by billionaire Elon Musk, handing over the its outcome to a court battle, with Musk trying to back out of the deal, news agency ANI reported citing Reuters.

(Photo: The Quint)

Twitter shareholders on Tuesday, 13 September, approved a $44 billion buyout deal proposed by billionaire Elon Musk, who now wants to back out of it.

The tally was arrived at during a shareholder meeting that lasted just minutes, with most votes being cast online. In July, Twitter's board had asked shareholders to vote in favour of the transaction.

This comes as Twitter whistleblower Peter 'Mudge' Zatko testified before a United States Senate committee about his claims of security lapses at the social media giant. Zatko was the former head of security at Twitter.

Elon Musk, in July, backed out of his deal to buy Twitter and alleged that the company defrauded him by concealing the number of fake accounts in its regulatory filings.

Twitter denied Musk's allegations and filed a lawsuit against the Tesla chief. The trial is scheduled for 17 October.

Musk filed a counter-suit against the social media giant on 30 July. The Tesla CEO accused Twitter of fraud, alleging that the company misled him regarding several key aspects of the business before he agreed to a buyout agreement.

Musk's Termination Letter

Last month, Musk's lawyers filed a 'Termination Letter' with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 29 August, citing the claims made by Twitter's former head of security Peiter "Mudge" Zatko as evidence that the platform misled the billionaire in the merger agreement.

On Tuesday, 23 August, Zatko alleged grave security malpractices at the company and the use of a misleading method to calculate the number of bots, fake accounts, and spam.

"Executives are incentivised (with bonuses of up to $10 million) to boost user counts rather than remove spam bots," he alleged, according to The Washington Post.

"[Zatko’s] allegations, if true, demonstrate that Twitter has breached the following provisions of the Merger Agreement, thereby giving the Musk Parties the right to terminate the Merger Agreement pursuant to its terms as more fully described below," the letter said.

(With inputs from Reuters, The Washington Post.)