Elon Musk and Twitter Inc were sued on Friday by a Florida pension fund seeking to stop Musk from completing his $44 billion takeover of the social media company before 2025. In a proposed class action filed in Delaware Chancery Court: the Orlando Police Pension Fund said Delaware law forbade a quick merger because Musk had agreements with other big Twitter shareholders: including his financial adviser Morgan Stanley and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey: to support the buyout. The fund said those agreements made Musk: who owns 9.6 per cent of Twitter: the effective :owner: of more than 15pc of the company:s shares. It said that required delaying the merger by three years unless two:thirds of shares not :owned: by him granted approval.
Morgan Stanley owns about 8.8pc of Twitter shares and Dorsey owns 2.4pc. Musk hopes to complete his $54.20 per share Twitter takeover this year: in one of the world:s largest leveraged buyouts. He also runs electric car company Tesla Inc: leads The Boring Co and SpaceX: and is the world:s richest person according to Forbes magazine. Twitter and its board: including Dorsey and Chief Executive Parag Agrawal: were also named as defendants.