Twitter board unanimously approves takeover proposal from Elon Musk

Twitter has made a big decision that puts more pressure on Elon Musk to complete his mega deal, but the Tesla founder is still casting doubt on the plan.

The board of social media platform Twitter has unanimously backed the $US44bn ($A63bn) take over of the firm by Elon Musk.

It means the mega deal has cleared another huge hurdle.

But it remains far from clear if the takeover will go ahead at all with the Tesla carmaker founder saying the deal remained held up by “very significant” questions about the number of fake users on the social network.

In a regulatory filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, Twitter’s board said it unanimously recommended shareholders back the Musk takeover plan as well as the compensation packages that senior executives will get should the merger proceed.

Twitter has backed the lucrative Musk deal. (Photo by Amy Osborne / AFP)

Mr Musk offered $US54.20 per share in Twitter in April. However, Twitter’s share price has since slumped to $US38.98 per share.

That would be great deal for Twitter investors but not so good for Mr Musk who would end up overpaying for the company.

Last week, Mr Musk told Twitter staff that he hoped to go forward with the deal.

But he was reluctant to talk about the takeover when asked at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday, saying it was a “sensitive” matter.

“There are still a few unresolved matters,” Mr Musk said by video link. This includes whether “the number of fake and spam users on the system is less than five per cent as per their claims, which I think is probably not most people’s experience when using Twitter.

“So we are still awaiting resolution on that matter and that is a very significant matter,” the Tesla car and SpaceX exploration chief said.

Mr Musk said there were also questions about Twitter’s debt and whether shareholders will vote for the deal.

Elon Musk has continued to raise doubts about Twitter. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP)

“So I think these are the three things that need to resolved” to make the transaction happen.

Mr Musk said he wanted to get 80 per cent of the North American population and half the world’s population onto Twitter.

“That means it must be something that is appealing to people, it obviously can’t be a place where they feel uncomfortable or harassed or they will simply not use it.

“I think there is this big difference between freedom of speech and freedom of reach,” Mr Musk added.

“You are allowed to yell whatever you want in a public space, more or less. But whatever you say, however controversial, doesn’t need to then be broadcast to the whole country.

“So I think generally the approach of Twitter should be to let people say what they want within the balance of the law but then limit who sees that based on any given Twitter user preferences.”

He said that if the deal went ahead his role would be to “drive the product”, saying this is what he did at Tesla and SpaceX.

Mr Musk said he expected Tesla’s number of employees to fall by about 3.5 per cent in the next three months but the headcount would start rising again in a year.

Asked about the next US presidential election in 2024, Musk said he had not decided who to back but that he was ready to inject $US20-$25 million ($A29-36m) into a candidate’s campaign.

He has previously indicated he could support Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis.