The expiry of the waiting period of the Hart-Scott-Rodino
Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR Act) occurred at 11.59pm Eastern
daylight time on Thursday, which was a condition to the closing of the pending
transaction, the San Francisco-based company said in a statement to the Nasdaq
on Friday.
“Completion of the transaction is subject to the
satisfaction of the remaining customary closing conditions, including approval
by Twitter stockholders and the receipt of remaining applicable regulatory
approvals,” the statement said.
The HSR Act aims to provide the Federal Trade Commission and
the US Department of Justice with information about large mergers and
acquisitions before they happen.
In April, Twitter entered a definitive agreement to be
acquired by an entity wholly owned by Mr Musk for $54.20 a share in cash for a
total of $44bn.
The microblogging site's share price is down about 6 per
cent since the start of this year.
It was trading at $40.25 a share, up almost 1 per cent, at
6.50pm UAE time on Friday.
While the deal to buy Twitter is supposed to be finalised by
the end of this year, Mr Musk said last month it had been temporarily put on
hold pending details on the number of fake accounts on the social media
platform.
The chief executive of world’s biggest electric vehicle
maker, Tesla, entered into a public spat with Twitter chief executive Parag
Agrawal over the company's estimates of spam accounts and said the deal could
not move forward unless the company provided proof that less than 5 per cent of
its users were fake.
In a regulatory filing, Twitter said false or spam accounts
represented fewer than 5 per cent of its monetisable daily active users during
the first quarter.
A recent study by Israeli cybersecurity company Cheq said
Twitter bots amount to up to 12 per cent of visits on the social media
platform. It analysed 5.21 million website visits originating from Twitter,
using more than 2,000 cybersecurity tests to determine each user's
authenticity.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has also asked Mr
Musk to explain delays in filings related to the deal.
In one of its previous communications to Mr Musk, the
regulator asked him to explain why he did not disclose, within a stipulated
time period, his increased stake in Twitter, especially if he planned to purchase
the company.
“Your response should address, among other things, your
recent public statements on the Twitter platform regarding Twitter, including
statements questioning whether Twitter rigorously adheres to free speech
principles,” the regulator said in an earlier letter.
If Mr. Musk decides to abandon the agreement, he would have
to pay the social media company a $1bn break-up fee.
0 comments:
Post a Comment