As promised, Twitter today sued Elon Musk in an attempt to force Musk to go through with the $44 billion purchase of Twitter, reports Reuters. Twitter in the lawsuit accuses Musk of trashing the company, disrupting its operations, and destroying stockholder value.
Having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play, and having proposed and then signed a seller-friendly merger agreement, Musk apparently believes that he - unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law - is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.
Last Friday, Musk told Twitter that he was terminating the deal because of "material breach of multiple provisions of the agreement." Musk has said that he does not believe Twitter's claim that fake or spam accounts represent less than five percent of users.
Musk claimed that Twitter did not comply with its contractual agreements because he was not provided with the relevant business information that he requested about spam account data.
After Musk said that he wanted to call off the merger agreement, Twitter chairman Bret Taylor said that Twitter's board was "committed to closing the transaction" and planned to pursue legal action to enforce the agreement.
Musk initially offered to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per share in April, and Twitter accepted the offer. The deal is worth $44 billion, though Musk and Twitter could settle and call off the purchase if Musk pays a $1 billion+ fine and Twitter accepts.
Top Rated Comments
On one side of the ring we have a completely demented megalomaniac billionaire slave driver and on the other side we have a media megacorporation that enabled political chaos worldwide.
I think I shall just watch them consume each other then piss on the remains.
In addition to Twitter's suit, I expect it is only a matter of time before we start seeing Class Action suits filed against Musk by stockholders for all the value that has been wiped out these past few months.
His Tweets in the last 24 hours:
Yep, this much is obvious. You don't go in, agree to a deal, and then back out pretending you don't believe Twitter's data estimates.
It's Musk's fault for signing a sales contract before doing his due diligence.
It's no different than if Twitter tried to back out of the sale because, oh I don't know, they found someone who was willing to pay more than $44 billion ($54.20/share) for the company. Twitter would then have to pay Musk $1 billion.