According to a court filing, Twitter Inc. requested that a Delaware court set a four-day trial for mid-September on Elon Musk's attempt to terminate the $44 billion acquisition deal for the social media platform.
Twitter lawyers filed a complaint against Musk on Tuesday in Delaware's Chancery Court, where Twitter is based, accusing him of "refusing to honor his duties."
The lawsuit centers on Musk's last-week attempt to "terminate" the merger agreement he signed in April by proposing to buy Twitter and take it private for $54.20 per share, which would value the transaction at $44 billion. Over the weekend, attorneys for Twitter referred to Musk's action as "invalid and wrongful."
Musk withdrew from the agreement in a letter, accusing Twitter of making choices to fire key executives and perform layoffs without his consent, lying to him and the SEC about the amount of "bots" or spam accounts on the network, and refusing to provide "useable" user data. According to Musk's attorneys, each of these purportedly represents a "breach" of the contract. Consequently, he can back out of the arrangement without even having to pay the $1 billion breakup fee that is stipulated in it.
The merger agreement Musk signed in April is not only "binding," and he legally must carry out the deal as agreed, Twitter argued, but he is only attempting to back out now "because it no longer serves his personal interests." Twitter pushed back against all of those points, calling them "pretexts" that "lack any merit."
Soon after the complaint was filed, Musk appeared to comment on it on Twitter, writing simply "Oh the irony lol."
Twitter's attorneys cited Musk's personal fortune, which is mostly invested in Tesla shares, the price of which has plunged 44% this year along with other tech equities. They said that since late last year, the value of his Tesla stock had decreased by more than $100 billion. Now that the stock market has declined, Musk merely "wants out" of his deal to purchase Twitter and wants to "shift the cost" of the decline onto Twitter's shareholders.
The business also blamed Musk, at least in part, for the 20 percent drop in its own stock price this year, claiming that the billionaire's "antics" and the "disdain he has shown" for the organization increased business risks and put pressure on its stock.
Despite all of this, Twitter is certain that Musk must complete the acquisition of the business at the agreed-upon $44 billion price. It requested that the court compel him to complete the transaction and enjoin him "against subsequent violations" of the contract. Twitter is also requesting that the matter be heard quickly, with a court hearing it in September, in light of the potential effects that a protracted legal battle may have on its business.
