Elon Musk to go ahead with $44-billion deal for Twitter as expected: Executives tell staff
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Twitter Inc executives told staff that Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk's $44-billion deal was proceeding as expected, and that they won't renegotiate the agreed-upon price of $54.20 per share.
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's top lawyer and head of policy, also told workers at an all-hands meeting that there is "no such thing as a deal being on hold," according to people who attended the meeting.
She was pushing back on claims from Musk over the past week that he is pausing the deal while he learns more about the number of bots and spam accounts on the social-media service.
Twitter stock jumped about 2% on the news of the meeting, which was first reported by Bloomberg. Earlier the shares had declined by as much as 1.7%.
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's top lawyer and head of policy, also told workers at an all-hands meeting that there is "no such thing as a deal being on hold," according to people who attended the meeting. She was pushing back on claims from Musk over the past week that he is pausing the deal while he learns more about the number of bots and spam accounts on the social-media service.
Other top Twitter executives, including Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal, also addressed employees, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal business. The companywide video call was intended for leadership to discuss the deal and provide more details following Twitter's filing of its proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week, which outlined the transaction's history and terms.
Gadde assured employees that Musk must "do everything he can" to make sure he gets his financing in order, and that it's possible Twitter could try and "enforce" the terms of the deal "if we ever needed to do that in a court." She added that getting to that step would be "pretty rare."
Musk earlier this week suggested he would be interested in renegotiating his deal for Twitter. The company's stock is currently trading at $37.45 per share, well below the offer price.
Gadde added that she believes Musk will be able to vote his shares at Twitter's annual shareholder meeting, which is scheduled for May 25. The shareholder vote on whether to approve the deal will take place at a later date.
