Elon Musk is involved in a tweeting war with Twitter. His hostile takeover bid was launched in April — since then, the rollercoaster ride has been a series of ups and downs, surprise turns, and a very public back and forth on Twitter. Over the weekend, Musk, the richest man in the world, chided the Twitter board in a meme.
Musk’s lawyers have made it clear that Elon’s offer of $44 billion was contingent on the platform showing data proving the number of “bots” or spam accounts operating on the platform was less than the 5% the board alleged.
After Twitter failed to fulfill its obligation to disclose requested data, Musk indicated he was stepping away from his offer, stating through his attorneys that Twitter was in breach of contract. That move led to an immediate 6% devaluation of Twitter stock.
The possible cascading impact of a failed deal and the apparent unscrupulous reporting tendencies of the Twitter board, led the mammoth social media platform to threaten legal action.
Associated Press reported:
“The chair of Twitter’s board, Bret Taylor, tweeted that the board plans to sue Elon Musk to complete the $44 billion merger he just rejected and that Twitter is ‘confident’ it will prevail,” the outlet tweeted.
Musk seems unfazed and unconcerned by Twitter’s threats. Over the weekend, Musk tweeted a humorous rebuke.
“They said I couldn’t buy Twitter,” the meme begins. “Then they wouldn’t disclose bot info.”
“Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court,” the meme continues. “Now they have to disclose bot info in court.”
The Daily Wire reported that last Friday, Musk’s legal team sent a letter to Twitter Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, stating Musk was terminating the purchase because “Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect.”
Twitter board chairman, Bret Taylor, responded later that day, writing:
“The Twitter Board 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.”
Musk has long indicated that one of his top priorities at Twitter would be “eliminating the spam and scam bots and the bot armies.”
In April, The Daily Caller reported Musk saying:
“It’s important to the function of democracy, it’s important to the function of the United States as a free country and many other countries, and to help freedom in the world more broadly than in the U.S. Civilizational risk is decreased the more we can increase the trust of Twitter as a public platform, and so I do think this will be somewhat painful.”
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