Twitter sues to force Musk to complete his $44B acquisition
Jul 12, 2022, 3:42 PM | Updated: Feb 13, 2023, 2:38 pm
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS APRIL 25: In this photo illustration, The Twitter profile of Elon Musk with more than 80 million followers in shown on a cell phone on April 25, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. It was announced today that Twitter has accepted a $44 billion bid from Musk to acquire the company. (Photo Illustration by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(Photo Illustration by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter said Tuesday it has sued Elon Musk to force him to complete the $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.
Musk and Twitter have been bracing for a legal fight since the billionaire said Friday he was backing off of his April agreement to buy the company.
The chair of Twitter’s board, Bret Taylor, tweeted Tuesday that the board has filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery “to hold Elon Musk accountable to his contractual obligations.”
Twitter’s lawsuit opens with a sharply-worded accusation that “Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”
BREAKING: Twitter said it has sued Elon Musk to force him to complete the $44 billion acquisition of the social media company. Musk and Twitter have been bracing for a legal fight since Musk said he was backing off of his April agreement to buy it. https://t.co/8khg4tESNL
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 12, 2022
“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,” the suit says.
The trial court in Delaware frequently handles business disputes among the many corporations, including Twitter, that are incorporated there.
Musk alleged Friday that Twitter has failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts on its service. Twitter said last month that it was making available to Musk a ″fire hose” of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets.
The company has said for years in regulatory filings that it believes about 5% of the accounts on the platform are fake. Musk is also alleging that Twitter broke the acquisition agreement when it fired two top managers and laid off a third of its talent-acquisition team.
