Twitter Sued To Force Elon Musk To Complete The $44 Billion Acquisition
According to a court filing, Twitter Inc sued Elon Musk for breaching a $44 billion acquisition to buy the social media platform, asking a Delaware state court to order the world’s richest person to force him to complete the merger at $54.20 per Twitter share agreed.
The lawsuit states having put on a public show to put Twitter on the line and having proposed and then signed a vendor-friendly merger agreement. Musk believes that he – unlike any other party subject to Delaware contract law – is free to change his mind, wreck the company, discontinue operations, destroy shareholder value, and walk away.
Musk had announced already that he was ending the agreement because Twitter had violated it by delaying responding to requests for information about fake or spam accounts on the platforms, which is critical to its business performance.
Twitter’s chairman of the board, Bret Taylor, tweeted Tuesday that a lawsuit has been filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery for Elon Musk to meet his contractual obligations.
Twitter’s sued suit urges the court to order Elon Musk to finish his Twitter acquisition agreement, arguing that no amount of financial compensation could restore the damage he has caused. The lawsuit warns that Musk’s conduct confirms that he wants to escape the binding contract he freely signed and harm Twitter in the process. Twitter has suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm due to the Defendants’ breaches.
The Delaware trial court frequently handles business disputes between the many corporations, including Twitter, that is incorporated there.
The contract signed in April calls for Musk to pay Twitter a $1 billion breakup if he can’t terminate the deal for funding or regulatory reasons. However, the breakup fee would not apply if Musk closed the deal alone.
Musk threatened to end the deal unless the company showed proof that spam and bot accounts recorded for less than 5% of users who see advertising on social networking.
Last month, Twitter gave Musk admission to its firehose, a raw data repository of hundreds of millions of daily tweets.
Lawyers of Twitter have called Elon Musk’s attempt to withdraw the $44 billion purchase of the social network invalid. The social network’s legal team said in a letter shared by the Stock Market Commission Securities (SEC) that the alleged termination of Mr. Elon Musk’s contract is invalid and unlawful and constitutes a repudiation of his obligations under the agreement.
