Elon Musk has claimed that Twitter "hoodwinked" him into agreeing to a $44 billion deal to buy the social media network. Twitter has responded by denying Musk's accusations.
Last week, Musk filed a countersuit against Twitter in the Delaware Court of Chancery as part of his attempt to pull out of the agreement. Twitter sued Musk in July to enforce the merger deal, claiming that the billionaire was attempting to back out since the acquisition cost had increased due to a decline in Musk's personal wealth.
Musk claims that Twitter withheld data from him that would have allowed him to confirm that less than 5% of Twitter's more than 220 million daily users were spam-focused or fraudulent, a crucial statistic for comprehending Twitter's ad business. The billionaire contends that Twitter misled or omitted details that would have revealed the firm's value.
Twitter revealed its 127-page legal rebuttal to Musk's assertions in a tweet on Thursday, intensifying its legal dispute with the billionaire by calling the accusations "implausible and contrary to fact as it sounds."
"When Twitter sued to enforce its rights and exposed the weakness of those reasons, Musk spent weeks coming up with more supposed reasons -- the Counterclaims -- which offer up an entirely new set of excuses for his breach. The Counterclaims are a made-for-litigation tale contradicted by the evidence and common sense," the legal filing says.
Twitter said that it never misled Musk because it has previously acknowledged that its estimates of spam or phony accounts were subject to error and that the actual number might be higher. Musk asserts that there are at least 10% of spam or fraudulent accounts on the platform, but Twitter has responded that Musk is not utilizing the same metrics as the social media giant or even using Twitter's data.
If a settlement cannot be reached, a trial between Twitter and Musk is scheduled to begin on October 17. In a special meeting scheduled for September 13, Twitter's shareholders will vote on the agreement.
Aside from that, Musk is being sued by Twitter's stockholders. According to Bloomberg, a Twitter shareholder who owns 5,500 shares of the company filed a lawsuit against Musk on Friday, requesting that the Delaware Chancery Court upheld the merger deal.
In the meantime, in July, the hedge fund Greenlight Capital added to its Twitter holdings. According to a letter given to investors on Monday, which was cited by numerous news sites, the hedge fund paid an average of $37.24 per share.
