Twitter shareholders tell Elon Musk they'll gladly take his $44 billion

Twitter’s shareholders have officially voted in favor of Elon Musk’s proposed $44 billion buyout of the company. And that’s even with Musk shouting across the ring that he doesn’t want the deal to go through. The majority approval isn’t exactly surprising; with Twitter stock currently riding around the $41-per-share mark, shareholders would profit from Musk’s bid.

Shareholder approval allows Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk to move forward in the Delaware Court of Chancery. That lawsuit was filed after Musk attempted to back out of the deal he’d signed to acquire Twitter at a price of $54.20 per share.

In an alternate timeline — one where Musk never decided to reverse course after signing a legally binding agreement — shareholder approval would be a big win for him. But we live in this reality, whether we want to or not, and therefore this approval is just another nail in Musk’s coffin.

Remind me where we’re at? — Does anyone else feel like this drama has been playing out for years now? Just us? Turns out it’s been less than half a year: Musk first proposed his buyout in April, a move many at Twitter quickly rejected. But then Musk actually secured the required funds and Twitter accepted his offer.

In the intervening months, Musk has tried many times over to terminate the agreement. Musk’s running argument is that there are far more fake accounts — spam and bots, mostly — on Twitter than the company will fess up to. Twitter has gone as far as to give Musk access to its “fire hose” of data, including every tweet being sent on the site, to quell those concerns.

Since that tactic hasn’t made much of a dent, Musk is now trying to work on an angle involving security-executive-turned-whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko. (Zatko’s disclosures have almost no bearing at all on Musk’s arguments, but that’s not stopping Musk from abusing every possible angle here.)

Kind of a no-brainer — This week’s shareholder approval means Twitter and Musk’s legal teams will face off in court beginning next month. We’re expecting plenty of mess, especially from Musk’s side of the court.

After all this drama, shareholders would almost certainly come out as losers if Musk’s deal fell apart. The price of Twitter stock has gone up 26 percent in the last six months — but that price will surely plummet if the Musk buyout fails. Given the stakes, choosing Musk’s $54.20 per share is really the only competent move for shareholders looking to profit from the chaos.