Twitter has frozen equity award accounts for employees days ahead of the deadline to close its deal with Elon Musk, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
Musk, chief executive of Tesla, and Twitter are directed by the Delaware court to close the $44 billion deal on Oct. 28. The deal was first announced in April.
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The social media company updated its employee FAQ page this week to alert staff that they won’t be able to access or trade shares from the Equity Award Center, according to the report.
The page said the change was done “in anticipation of the closing of the pending acquisition of Twitter by an entity controlled by Elon Musk,” according to the report, citing two people familiar with the change.
The move comes after months of legal wrangling between the billionaire and the social media company following Musk’s attempts in July to terminate his planned $44 billion purchase of Twitter. Twitter took him to court to force him to go through with the deal.
Issues with the deal continue, as questions over the source of the required $44 billion mount in the face of falling stocks and global fiscal tightening that has made money supplies harder to access, even for the richest man on Earth. Apollo Global Management and Sixth Street, which both were set to provide financing, have backed out of those talks.
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