Twitter's board approves deal with Elon Musk, and now it's up to shareholders

What you need to know

• Twitter's board of directors has officially filed for a shareholder's vote on the Elon Musk acquisition.
• It's unclear when the shareholders will hold the vote to make the final decision. 
• Musk claims there are still three major issues that need to be resolved before the deal can proceed.

We're still likely months from the Elon Musk and Twitter deal coming to a close, assuming everything goes off without a hitch. But the good news is that Twitter's board of directors has officially asked its shareholders to approve the deal. 

This confirmation comes via a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission or the SEC (via TechCrunch). The board states it "unanimously recommends that you vote (for) the adoption of the merger agreement." Provided the merger is agreed upon, Twitter's shareholders "are entitled to receive $54.20 in cash" for each share that they own, for a total of about $44 billion.

All of this began in April when Musk initially stated his intention to purchase the massive social media network. However, it's been quite an adventurous and rocky road at times. The deal was temporarily suspended over data on spam bots, followed by Twitter's accusation that Musk had broken a non-disclosure agreement. 

Musk also tried to hold up the deal by requesting more information regarding the ongoing problem with spam bots on the platform. Twitter finally agreed to comply with the request, giving Musk access to Twitter's internal comprised of more than 500 million daily tweets.

More recently, Musk spoke at an event where he stated three key issues would need to be resolved before the deal could go through. As provided by CNBC, the problems comprise "fake accounts," "debt financing," and "shareholder approval."

Twitter has already provided the "fire hose" in regards to spam bots and fake accounts. And with the recent SEC filing, the tertiary complaint is now in the hands of said shareholders. There's no clear indication of when the shareholders will vote on the matter, but we know there could be a few chapters left to add before the story is wrapped up.