Musk has vowed not to move forward with the acquisition, leading to a legal battle with the social media giant.
Twitter on Tuesday said an initial count showed shareholders endorsed Elon Musk’s proposed $44 billion (€44 billion) buyout of the social media platform.
Although the deadline for the shareholder vote on the deal was set for Tuesday, it is believed that enough investors had voted by Monday evening for the outcome to be certain.
Musk has told Twitter he does not plan to go ahead with the acquisition, arguing he was misled over the number of fake accounts on the platform.
The company has sued Musk to complete the deal, with a hearing set for October. Lawyers for Twitter say Musk’s reasons for withdrawing from the deal are “invalid and wrongful.”
Should Twitter prevail in the case, the judge could order the Tesla chief to pay billions of dollars to the company — or even demand that he complete the purchase.
Musk’s argument could be strengthened by the testimony of Twitter’s former security chief, who told the US Congress on Tuesday that the social media platform is plagued by weak cyber defenses.
Peiter “Mudge” Zatko claims that the company is not aware of what data it has and how to protect it, prioritizing profit over security. Zatko, a respected cybersecurity expert, laid out his allegations to the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that Twitter leadership was “misleading the public, lawmakers, regulators and even its own board of directors.”
However, many of the claims made by Zatko are uncorroborated and appear to have little documentary support.
