Twitter sues Elon Musk to force him to complete acquisition
By Clare Duffy, CNN Business
Twitter has sued billionaire Elon Musk in an effort to force him to follow through with his deal to buy the social media company.
The lawsuit, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery on Tuesday, comes after Musk said in a letter to Twitter’s top lawyer late Friday that he wants to terminate the blockbuster $44 billion acquisition agreement.
Musk’s lawyer alleged in Friday’s letter that Twitter is “in material breach of multiple provisions” of the deal, claiming the company has withheld data Musk requested in order to evaluate the number of bots and spam accounts on the platform. Twitter’s legal team hit back in a letter on Monday, calling Musk’s attempted termination “invalid and wrongful” and demanding that he follow through with the deal.
The deal is now likely headed for a lengthy court battle to determine whether Twitter can force Musk to close the deal and become its owner, or at least get him to pay the $1 billion set out as a breakup fee in the original agreement.
After initially saying he wanted to buy Twitter to eradicate bots, Musk has in recent weeks expressed concerns (without any apparent evidence) that there are more bots on the platform than Twitter has publicly reported.
Some analysts, however, have suggested that Musk simply wants an excuse to get out of a deal that now seems overpriced following the downturn in Twitter shares and the overall tech market. Tesla shares, which Musk is relying on in part to finance the deal, have also declined sharply since he agreed to the acquisition deal.
Twitter’s stock, which regained around 4% on Tuesday after falling sharply on Monday, is trading nearly $20 below Musk’s offer price, suggesting deep skepticism about the deal getting done, at least at its original price.
The-CNN-Wire
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