Twitter Inc investors blocked the re-election of an ally of Elon Musk to the board at an annual meeting on Wednesday that avoided the biggest question for the social media company: Will it complete a $44 billion sale to the billionaire, Reuters said.
Investors voted against Egon Durban, the co-head of private equity firm Silver Lake, who partnered with Tesla CEO Musk on his abandoned bid to take the electric carmaker private.
The rebuke of Durban comes as uncertainty looms over the deal. Musk tweeted on May 13 that the Twitter deal was "temporarily on hold" while he sought more information about the proportion of fake accounts on Twitter, the report said.
Some shareholders who filed proposals at the meeting appealed directly to Musk in their presentations. "Mr. Musk, if you're listening, we hope that you'll join us in voting for this proposal," said Ethan Peck, an associate at the National Center for Public Policy Research, which asked Twitter to commission an audit on its impact on civil rights.
(With inputs from Reuters)
