Musk ally is ousted from Twitter board

TWITTER shareholders have ousted a key ally of Elon Musk from its board amid fears the billionaire’s £35bn takeover will fail.

Investors opposed the re-election of Egon Durban, the co-chief executive of private equity firm Silver Lake, at the social media giant’s annual general meeting.

Durban and Silver Lake worked with Musk on his failed bid to take his electric car company Tesla private in 2018. He is also thought to be a key figure behind the tycoon’s involvement in the company.

His exit came amid growing scepticism that Musk, the world’s richest man, would make good on his plans to take over Twitter after tweeting this month that the deal was ‘temporarily on hold’ as he sought more information on the number of fake Twitter accounts.

Twitter did not take questions on the takeover bid at its AGM. It said last week it remained committed to the deal at the agreed price.

Shareholders backed a motion for the company to create reports on its spending during elections, but another proposal for it to commission a report on its political lobbying activities was voted down. The social media firm’s shares rose 3.3pc yesterday.