Twitter hires a top legal firm to sue Elon Musk over failed $44B deal even as Musk mocks the company with a laughing meme
Nickie Louise
Posted On July 11, 2022
Twitter Inc. has hired and assembled heavyweights Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to represent the company after Musk pulled out of $44 billion deal, according to a report from Yahoo Financial News, citing people familiar with the matter.
On Friday, Twitter’s chairman, Bret Taylor, also vowed that the social giant is pursuing legal action against Tesla CEO Elon Musk over the botched $44 billion takeover deal. In a post, Taylor wrote: “The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk…”
The Twitter 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.
— Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022
Musk responded to the lawsuit early this morning with a laughing meme below. The meme has a series of four photos of the Telsa founder laughing with captions that read: “They said I couldn’t buy Twitter; Then they wouldn’t disclose bot info; Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court; Now they have to disclose bot info in court.”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2022
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday, Musk said Twitter breached the deal because the San Francisco-based company failed to provide him with enough information to back up its claim that spam or fake accounts constitute less than 5% of its active users.
“Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement,” the filing reads.
However, the social giant said it stands by this estimate but also said it’s possible the number of these accounts is higher.
Musk’s main claim against Twitter is that the San Francisco-based company breached its deal because it will not share with him enough information to back up its claim that spam or fake accounts constitute less than 5% of its active users. Twitter has stood by this estimate but also said it’s possible the number of these accounts is higher.
Meanwhile, legal experts said that Twitter has a strong legal case against Musk, but could decide to renegotiate the deal or settlement instead of a long legal fight.
“We believe that Elon Musk’s intentions to terminate the merger are more based on the recent market sell-off than… Twitter’s ‘failure’ to comply with his requests,” Jefferies analyst Brent Thill wrote in a note.
