Twitter to sue Elon Musk for trying to call off his $44 billion takeover deal
Elon Musk announced on Friday he was terminating his $44 billion (€43.2 billion) deal to buy Twitter, saying "multiple provisions" of the agreement had been breached.
The world's richest man wrote in a regulatory filing that the social media company had failed to provide information about fake or spam accounts on its platform.
The terms of the deal require Musk to pay a $1 billion (€981 million) break-up fee if he does not complete the transaction. But Twitter is already saying it will fight in court to enforce it.
The chair of Twitter's board, Bret Taylor, tweeted in response that the board is “committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement".
"We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,” Taylor added.
The news is the latest twist in a weeks-long will-he-won't-he saga that saw the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX publicly accuse Twitter of underestimating the numbers of fake or spam accounts, which are key to the company's business performance.
In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk said Twitter had “not complied with its contractual obligations” surrounding the deal, namely giving him enough information to “make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform”.
Much of the takeover drama has played out on Twitter, with Musk – who has more than 95 million followers – also repeatedly lamenting that the company was failing to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech.
Shares of Twitter fell 5 per cent to $36.81 on the news, well below the $54.20 that Musk had offered to pay. Shares of Tesla, meanwhile, climbed 2.5 per cent
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