Twitter Board Vows To Pursue Musk, Who Mocks Legal Threat

Twitter’s senior management have vowed to pursue legal action against Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, after he pulled out of his $44 billion takeover agreement.

Musk is the world’s richest person, and on Friday his side logged a letter with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, announcing he was “terminating” his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, alleging the social media company had breached multiple provisions of the merger agreement.

When Musk has previously placed the deal on hold, Twitter’s board responded and warned Musk it will ‘enforce’ the takeover deal.

Legal action

And now that Musk has confirmed his acquisition agreement is terminated with the platform, Twitter has continued to take the same tough line.

Twitter’s chairman, Bret Taylor, said the board planned to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.

“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,” he wrote.

Bot data

In their SEC filing, Musk’s lawyers said Twitter had failed or refused to respond to multiple requests for information on fake or spam accounts on the platform, which is fundamental to the company’s business performance.

“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,” the filing said.

Musk also said he was walking away because Twitter fired high-ranking executives and one-third of the talent acquisition team, breaching Twitter’s obligation to “preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organisation.”

The original acquisition agreement between the two parties includes a $1bn (£830m) break-up fee, and Twitter is keen to pursue this, which is likely to result in a protracted legal tussle between the billionaire and the San Francisco-based company.

Musk response

Musk responded to Twitter’s legal threats by posting a meme on his Twitter account, openly mocking the threat.

He also then invoked Chuck Norris in a second tweet using ‘Chuckmate’ as the only comment.