Twitter says waiting period for Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal has expired

Twitter on Friday (June 3) announced the expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR Act) for Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy the social media giant.

“The expiration of the HSR waiting period occurred at 11:59 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) on June 2, 2022, which was a condition to the closing of the pending transaction,” Twitter said in a press release.

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Now, the completion of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of the remaining customary closing conditions, including approval by Twitter stockholders and the receipt of remaining applicable regulatory approvals, the company added.

As per the previously announced agreement for Twitter, the company was to be acquired by affiliates of Musk for $54.20 per share in cash.

The HSR Act requires parties to report large transactions to both the Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division for review, according to a Reuters report.

Last month, Twitter said it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by a private entity affiliated with Musk.

“The purchase price is $54.20 per share. We expect the transaction to close in 2022, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Upon completion of the transaction (or the “closing”), Twitter will become a privately held company,” the company said.

On May 13, Musk said he was putting the Twitter deal on hold over fake accounts on the platform.

“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” Musk tweeted.

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Earlier in May, in a filing at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (USSEC), Twitter said, there are less than 5% of fake or spam accounts of its monetizable daily active usage or users (mDAU) in the first quarter of 2022.

“… there are a number of false or spam accounts in existence on our platform. We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our monetizable daily active usage or users (mDAU during the quarter,” Twitter said in its filing.