Twitter annual meeting: No Musk details, but board surprises
Andrew Burton/Getty Images News
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) on Wednesday held what could end up being its final annual shareholders meeting as a publicly traded company. And while there were a few surprises in the first half hour, the one thing on everyone's mind - Elon Musk's proposed $44 billion acquisition - barely came up at all.
For those looking for any Musk deal talk, Twitter (TWTR) Chief Executive Parag Agrawal noted at the top of his remarks that company "cannot discuss the transaction today." Musk--who has taken to Twitter (TWTR) multiple times to bring up the acquisition since first making his offer in mid-April--was also remaining quiet about the deal, having not tweeted about anything since Tuesday.
In actual business, Twitter (TWTR) had nominated three directors to stand for election, but one of them - former AllianceBernstein Chairman Robert Zoellick - finally decided not to stand.
As for the other two, Inovia Capital's Patrick Pichette was approved for his board seat, but Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban did not receive approval. And former Twitter (TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey is leaving the company's board.
While the non-binding, say-on-pay and auditor ratification proposals passed, a company proposal to declassify the board of directors failed.
A number of shareholder proposals failed - including an initiative to nominate a director candidate with human and/or civil rights expertise; a measure to audit civil rights and non-discrimination impact; and one to report on lobbying activities and spending. However, two proposals did pass: one to publish a report on risk from concealment clauses in cases such as harassment and discrimination, and one to report on the company's electoral spending.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives suggested Twitter's board was in a "quagmire" over Musk's deal heading into the meeting.