Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and social media firm Twitter Inc were sued on Friday by a Florida pension fund seeking to stop Musk from completing the $44 billion takeover of the social media firm before 2025, Reuters reported.
In a proposed class action filed in Delaware Chancery Court, the Orlando Police Pension Fund said Delaware law forbade “a quick merger” because Musk had agreements with other big Twitter shareholders, including his financial adviser Morgan Stanley and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, to support the buyout.
The fund reportedly said those agreements made Musk, who owns 9.6 percent of Twitter, the effective “owner” of more than 15 percent of the company’s shares, requiring a three-year delay in the merger unless two-thirds of shares not “owned” by him granted approval, the report added.
Morgan Stanley owns about 8.8 percent of Twitter shares and Dorsey owns 2.4 percent. It was not immediately clear from the lawsuit how Twitter shareholders might be harmed absent a three-year delay, according to the report.
Twitter and its board, including Dorsey and Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, were also named as defendants.
It was earlier reported that Musk raised around $7 billion from investors including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, crypto exchange Binance and asset management firms Fidelity, Brookfield and Sequoia Capital to fund the deal. Other backers include Dubai-based tech investment group Vy Capital, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund QIA, among others, Financial Times reported.
Musk had no financing lined up when he first announced the plan to acquire Twitter. Twitter later announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Musk, for $54.20 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion.
Musk, who co-founded and leads electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, aerospace firm SpaceX, neurotechnology company Neuralink, is the world’s richest person, according to Forbes magazine. He emerged as the largest shareholder of Twitter with a 9.2 percent stake in early April. He was then offered to join Twitter’s board but turned down the invitation before launching a surprise bid for the company on Apr 14.
According to Reuter‘s report, the lawsuit seeks to delay the merger’s closing until at least 2025, declare that Twitter directors breached their fiduciary duties, and recoup legal fees and costs.
The case is Orlando Police Pension Fund v Twitter Inc et al, Delaware Chancery Court, No. 2022-0396, the report added.
On another matter, Musk reportedly claimed he would increase Twitter’s annual revenue to $26.4 billion by 2028, up from $5 billion last year, New York Times reported, citing a pitch deck presented by Musk to investors.
He also aims to increase Twitter’s cash flow to $3.2 billion in 2025 and $9.4 billion in 2028, the newspaper reported, citing the presentation.