• by Colin Kirkland , September 13, 2022

On Tuesday, after Twitter encouraged investors to ratify the deal, shareholders voted to accept the $44-billion deal that Elon Musk is attempting to abandon.

Musk, who agreed to buy the social media company in April for $54.20 per share, is now battling in court to try to to rescind the agreement. Twitter shares are currently trading far below his offer, at about $41.77.

The meeting last just seven minutes. Shareholders had been able to register their votes for several weeks prior to the meeting. Recent reports had predicted a vote in favor of the deal.

After the parties agreed on the deal, Musk claimed that Twitter provided false numbers on bots and spam accounts and has refused to provide the specific data he needs to assess the scenario. Twitter denied the accusations and sued Musk; Musk counter-sued. The trial is set to begin during the week of Oct. 17th in Delaware Chancery Court and the judge has approved 

Former Twitter security chief Peiter “Mudge” Zatko subsequently became a whistleblower, alleging that the company has significant security vulnerabilities, and supporting Musk's claim that it has more fake accounts than it has admitted.

Musk's legal team subpoenaed Zatko, and the judge in the case recently ruled to allow Zatko to testify. 

Separately, in testimony on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Zatko said Twitter's security practices are a "decade behind" industry standards and pose national security risks for the United States. Zatko elaborated on his accusations that Twitter has spies on its payroll and excess stored user data, in addition to experiencing thousands of weekly hacking attempts.