Back in May, the Orlando Police Pension Fund, which holds Twitter shares, filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s efforts to acquire the social media company. This lawsuit was dismissed Friday, removing yet another hurdle to Musk and his potential Twitter buyout.
In its lawsuit, the Orlando Police Pension Fund accused Twitter, its Board of Directors, Elon Musk, and Morgan Stanley, which is advising Musk on the acquisition, of coming to an “agreement, arrangement or understanding” on the potential acquisition before the deal became public. It also accused Twitter’s Board of “breaching its fiduciary duty” in accepting Musk’s offer.
Prior to Musk’s announcement of his intentions to acquire Twitter and his subsequent deal with the company, Musk purchased shares of the social media platform over the course of several months. The Tesla CEO quietly acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the company’s single largest shareholder.
As noted in an Insider report, the pension fund alleged that any arrangement between the parties being sued — all of whom also happen to be Twitter shareholders — would make Elon Musk an “interested party” under Delaware law. And if Musk was an “interested party,” the fund argued that the Twitter acquisition deal would have to be delayed by three years.
This meant that Musk would have to be prevented from acquiring Twitter before 2025.
What followed were weeks of discovery and depositions, which included a three-hour interview with Elon Musk that was not made public. The fund ultimately agreed to have the case dismissed “with prejudice,” which meant that it cannot sue Twitter again on the same claims in the future.
The case was formally dismissed on Friday, with a judge in a Delaware Chancery Court dismissing the lawsuit.
Interestingly enough, the dismissal of the Orlando Police Pension Fund’s lawsuit comes amidst Musk’s long absence from Twitter. Musk has not posted anything on the social media platform for over a week now, prompting both his supporters and critics to speculate on the reasons behind what is turning out to be an extended absence, at least by the CEO’s Twitter standards.
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