Twisty Twitter Saga

Billionaire Elon Musks’s already Byzantine dealings with Twitter have taken another twist.

Twitter’s shareholders have officially voted to approve Elon Musk’s $44 billion bid, allowing the board to take the company private if it can force the billionaire to uphold his deal in the upcoming trial.

The shareholders met for a short meeting on Tuesday to finalize the votes. Twitter confirmed on a call that a preliminary count of the votes shows that the company has enough to approve the deal. The meeting was short and lasted only seven minutes, according to Bloomberg.

They may have set a record for the most efficient meeting in Silicon Valley history.

While the majority of Twitter’s shareholders voted in favor of the deal, its largest shareholder has not spoken yet. Musk had not voted in favor or against the deal as of Monday afternoon. The shareholder vote means that Twitter’s board of directors has permission to uphold its initial contract to have Musk purchase the company. However, it will still need to go through an expedited trial in October over Twitter’s lawsuit about Musk’s termination of the deal before the deal can be finalized. It is also possible that Twitter will settle with Musk for a lower price than the initial price.

The only way this lawsuit doesn’t end with Musk buying Twitter is if he manages to win in court.

Which looks even less likely, considering the judge’s actions so far.

Musk attempted to delay the trial by a month, only for the judge overseeing the trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery to reject the request over allegations that a one-month delay could cause irreparable harm to Twitter as a company.

Ordinarily, the oligarchy is willing to crash and burn the enterprises they take over. But remember, Twitter has always been their home turf. It’s the main organ used by the regime to issue firmware updates to their NPCs. Musk put them in a Xanatos gambit where their only options are selling Twitter to him or burning it down. However much the though of an infidel running one of their main communication lines rankles them, they’ll take that over destroying it outright.

The board’s recent vote lends more credence to my expectation that the trial will end in a settlement this fall. Twitter will sell to Musk at a reduced price in exchange for him letting them save face. His takeover of the company should be complete after the first of next year.

That’s when the regime will use every method at its disposal – legal and otherwise – to steal it back from him.

Popcorn emoji, indeed.

Happy, hopeful, and practical

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