Twitter’s board urges shareholders to approve Musk takeover bid

Twitter’s board of directors on Tuesday again advised shareholders to approve Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $44 billion bid to purchase the social media giant.

The board “unanimously recommends that you vote [for] the adoption of the merger agreement,” it urged in a new SEC filing. The filing adds that Twitter’s board believes the merger is “fair to, advisable and in the best interests of Twitter and its stockholders.”

Musk and Twitter agreed on a deal in April for the billionaire to buy the platform for $44 billion. But the board’s endorsement on Tuesday comes amid uncertainty that the deal will go through as Musk has in recent weeks threatened to pull out of the agreement over questions about fake and spam accounts on the platform.

Earlier Tuesday at the Qatar Economic Forum, Musk said the deal is being held up by “very significant questions” about the number of fake and spam users on Twitter. While the social media company claims the number of fake accounts on the app is less than five percent, Musk said that statistic “is probably not most people’s experience when using Twitter."

“We’re still awaiting resolution on that matter, and that is a very significant matter,” Musk told Bloomberg in an interview at the forum.

Twitter's board previously recommended in May that shareholders vote to approve the acquisition. A shareholder vote had been expected at a May 25 meeting. But amid the ongoing drama over Musk's attempts to pause the deal, Twitter executives instead dodged questions about the agreement.

Musk on Tuesday added that his debt financing still needs to come together and shareholders also need to vote to approve the deal for his bid to go through.