Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has reacted to the threat of legal action by Twitter’s board over his decision to terminate the $44 billion acquisition deal. According to him, the legal action was an attempt to force him to buy Twitter in court.
Musk in an image tweet insisted that the Twitter board refused to disclose the information about the percentage of bots on Twitter, adding that they would now be forced to disclose the same information in court.
The billionaire also hinted that many were doubting his ability to raise the money to buy Twitter.
What Elon Musk is saying
In the Twitter post with different images of him laughing, Musk said: “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.”
This came as Musk’s first open reaction since his lawyer filed for the termination of the deal on Friday and the subsequent threat of legal action by the board of Twitter.
Why Elon Musk wants to terminate the deal
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Elon Musk’s lawyer Mike Ringler, cited many reasons for his decision to quit, noting that “Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations.”
Ringler claimed that Twitter did not provide Musk with the relevant business information he requested, as Ringler said the contract would require. Musk has previously said he wanted to assess Twitter’s claims that about 5% of its monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) are spam accounts.
“Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information,” Ringler claimed. “Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information.”
Ringler also charged in the letter that Twitter breached the merger agreement because it allegedly contains “materially inaccurate representations.” This accusation is based on Musk’s own preliminary review of spam accounts on Twitter’s platform. Twitter has said it’s not possible to calculate spam accounts from solely public information and that a team of experts conducts a review to reach the 5% figure.
“While this analysis remains ongoing, all indications suggest that several of Twitter’s public disclosures regarding its mDAUs are either false or materially misleading,” Ringer alleged.
“Despite public speculation on this point, Mr. Musk did not waive his right to review Twitter’s data and information simply because he chose not to seek this data and information before entering into the Merger Agreement,” Ringer added. “In fact, he negotiated access and information rights within the Merger Agreement precisely so that he could review data and information that is important to Twitter’s business before financing and completing the transaction.”
He also claimed that Twitter breached its obligations under the agreement to get Musk’s consent before changing its ordinary course of business, pointing to recent layoffs at the company.
