Twitter has refused to remove Silver Lake executive co-director Egon Durban from its board of directors, even after social media company investors voted against his re-election to the shareholders’ meeting. this week.
Durban failed to get the support of the much-needed majority of Twitter investors on Wednesday, following concerns from two major shareholder advisors, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, that the private equity investor is taking too much advice. Durban holds a seat on seven public boards in total, one more than last year, the ISS said.
Following the vote, Durban resigned, in accordance with Twitter’s corporate governance guidelines.
However, Twitter said in a regulatory presentation on Friday that it had decided not to accept his resignation, following an agreement that Durban will reduce its board commitments to no more than five public company boards. on May 25 next year.
“The board considers Mr. Durban to be a very effective member and believes that it provides the board with unmatched operational knowledge of the industry, a unique perspective and an invaluable set of skills and experience with mergers and acquisitions,” the presentation said. .
Along with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Durban was one of the first people Elon Musk contacted after acquiring a stake in the company earlier this year, making it the first step toward to a $ 44 billion takeover bid from the head of Tesla. Dorsey announced this week that he would leave the Twitter board.
A total of 43 percent of the votes cast by investors at Twitter’s shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday opposed Durban’s re-election to the board, compared to 33 percent in favor, according to figures released by Twitter on Friday.
The presentation says the board believed that the reason Durban was rejected was “due to the voting guidelines of the representation advisory company, as well as the voting policies of certain institutional investors regarding limitations on board service “.
Twitter, Silver Lake and Durban declined to comment.
The agitation in the boardroom comes when there is uncertainty about Musk’s ability to close the deal to buy Twitter.
Musk needs to raise much more cash than previously reported, as the billionaire decided to drop a $ 6.25 billion margin loan commitment backed by his Tesla shares, a move that will force him to find more liquidity to finance the transaction.
The head of Tesla will need $ 33.5 billion in cash to complete the transaction, according to a regulatory document released Wednesday, more than the $ 21 billion capital check mentioned when the deal was agreed on April 25.
Earlier this month, Musk said the deal was “temporarily suspended” pending further clarification on the number of fake or spam accounts on the platform. Twitter executives have said they intend to close the transaction.
Other Durban board commitments include Manchester City football club parent company, talent and media agency Endeavor, gaming platform Unity Technologies and Waymo, Google’s former autonomous car business.
Durban has been on Twitter’s board of directors since March 2020 as part of a cooperation deal between Twitter and activist investor Elliott Management, which pressured Dorsey to resign as CEO due to slow growth in relationship with colleagues like Meta.