Elon Musk must pay a $1 billion (£ 830 million) break-up fee under the terms of the agreement if the transaction is not completed. However, it appears that Twitter’s board will file a lawsuit rather than accept the payment. Representatives for Mr. Musk said that Twitter broke the terms of an agreement and “appears to have made false and misleading assertions” in a statement submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Additionally, they claimed Twitter had refused to give Mr. Musk the data and information he needed to “conduct an unbiased assessment of the incidence of fraudulent or spam accounts” on the social media site. “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,” the statement continued.
Twitter’s stock dropped 7% in extended trading as a result of Mr. Musk’s decision, significantly below the $54.20 he had originally offered to pay for the company back in April. The agreement stipulates that Mr. Musk must pay a $1 billion (£830 million) break-up fee if the sale is not completed.
It appears that the board of Twitter will file a lawsuit rather than accept the cash. Twitter’s chairman Bret Taylor tweeted that the company is “committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement”. “We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,” he added. The agreement’s potential unraveling is merely the most recent development in a tale between the richest man in the world and one of the most significant social media platforms.
Most of the drama took place on Twitter, where Mr. Musk, who has more than 95 million followers, bemoaned how the service was not achieving its potential as a forum for free speech. Due to Mr. Musk’s choice, the 16-year-old San Francisco-based business and the billionaire are expected to engage in a protracted legal dispute.
