Twitter's official board is in favor of Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover coming to a close, so it's pushing for shareholders to get behind the deal, according to a recent regulatory filing.
On the document's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the board said it "unanimously recommends that you vote (for) the adoption of the merger agreement," according to an initial report from TechCrunch.
Twitter advises shareholders to get behind Elon Musk's buyout
Twitter's board also gave its unanimous recommendation that the shareholders give approval for "the compensation that will or may become payable by Twitter to its named executive officers in connection with the merger" and "the adjournment of the special meeting, from time to time, to a later date or dates, if necessary or appropriate, to solicit additional proxies if there are insufficient votes to adopt the merger agreement at the time of the special meeting."
As of writing, Twitter's share price was roughly $38.96 per share — far lower than Musk's offer of $54.20 per share. The social media juggernaut's market cap had also slipped below $30 billion. This means that a $44 billion deal will yield immense profit for shareholders at the firm.
But the deal has been on pause over the problem of bots present on the social media site. Earlier in June, Musk was granted access to Twitter's "firehose" — which is a stream of Tweets with restrictions removed that enabled him to examine and measure the percentage of bots on the platform.
This comes on the heels of a changing atmosphere in and around the company as Musk hosted his first meetings with Twitter employees last week — where he said he had less interest in becoming the CEO than expecting that people listen to him, according to an initial report from Business Insider.
Musk wants people at Twitter to 'listen' to him
"There are a lot of chores to being CEO," said Musk in the meeting, according to the report. "And I just want to make sure that the product evolves rapidly and in a good way." Musk was clear about his attitude on titles: "I don't really care what the title is. But people do need to listen to me."
Musk also hinted that — should his Twitter deal close, he aims to focus work on the platform's "software and product design," according to the report. "If I say 'Hey, we need to improve the product in the following way and add these features' then, like, I do expect people will listen to me in this regard."
The tech billionaire also said users ought to have the right to filter content they would prefer not to see. To Musk, it's not about offending people — instead, the purpose of content moderation should be about keeping users entertained and informed.
Musk said that if 10 percent of the "far left" and "far right" are upset, then Twitter is doing a fair job — and should entice most humans to open an account and log all the way on. It's a deceptively simple dream, and while many Musk and free speech enthusiasts think it can work, not everyone who liked the way Twitter already was is thrilled. But, if the takeover is completed, both sides will have to get used to the changes.