Twitter’s shareholders approve Elon Musk’s $44bn offer

of $270bn or thereabouts, Elon Musk is not a man strapped for cash. Thank goodness, for the entrepreneur may soon be compelled to make a sizeable donation to his favourite social-media platform. On September 13th shareholders of Twitter voted to approve the $44bn buy-out offer Mr Musk made in April. The decision was a no-brainer, given that the company’s market value currently languishes below $32bn. In his capacity as Twitter’s largest shareholder, with a 9.6% stake, he would no doubt accept his offer. As the acquirer, he is trying to wriggle out of the deal. Twitter, armed with a bulletproof takeover agreement, is having none of it. A Delaware court will decide the buy-out’s fate in October.With the trial date nearing, now is about the time when parties usually begin settlement talks, says Brian Quinn, a law professor at Boston College. Mr Musk’s chances of success in the courtroom look slim. His stated reason for pulling out of the deal is that the share of fake users, or bots, greatly exceeds the 5% claimed by the company. That may be true. An academic paper from 2017 estimated the share at between 9% and 15%. Bob Iger, who as boss of Disney had considered buying Twitter, noted in a recent interview his due diligence revealed it to be “substantial”. But identifying bots is an imperfect science. More important, Mr Musk would need to prove that the underestimate counts as a “material adverse effect” on Twitter’s future earnings, a high legal bar. It won’t help his case that he opted out of due diligence.