Twitter rejects resignation of Musk ally Durban after shareholders blocked his re-election

Two days after Twitter's shareholders blocked the re-election of Elon Musk's ally Egon Durban, the company has said in a filing that will not accept his resignation from the board.

Due to "voting policies of certain institutional investors regarding board service limitations," Durban failed to receive the support of a majority of the votes in the re-election held earlier this week according to Twitter.

The shareholders felt Durban could not reduce his board service commitments as he already serves on the boards of six other companies.

This is why it did not re-elect him despite bringing "an unparalleled operational knowledge of the industry" and being an "effective member" of the board.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who is the world's richest man, had offered a cash deal worth $44 billion to buy tech giant Twitter.

Tech experts believe that shareholders' blocking could indicate skepticism among shareholders of Musk's plan or his willingness to pay what he offered.

Interestingly, Durban has a history of assisting Musk by financing his projects. He is the co-CEO at Silver Lake Partners and not only helped Musk put together money for his Twitter deal but also offered to help him when he contemplated a $72 billion bid to take electric-car maker Tesla Inc private.

Musk had announced on Twitter that his deal to acquire to social media platform was "temporarily on hold" while he sought more information about the proportion of fake accounts on the microblogging site.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with which Musk has conflicting history, has asked the Tesla CEO to explain an apparent delay in reporting his Twitter stock buys.

In 2018, the SEC had imposed a massive fine of $20 million each on both Musk and Tesla for misleading shareholders that he had "secured" funding to take the company private.

(With inputs from agencies)

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