Why Elon Musk Can’t Again Out of Shopping for Twitter, In response to Twitter

In a 62-page lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Twitter accused Elon Musk of breaching an settlement to purchase the social media firm for $44 billion. Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, has tried to back out of the acquisition, citing Twitter’s variety of pretend accounts and accusing the corporate of not giving him sufficient details about the difficulty and misrepresenting itself.

In its lawsuit, Twitter sought to show that it has the proper to sue him to shut the deal and present that Mr. Musk’s claims towards it had no advantage. As a substitute, it was Mr. Musk who was violating the settlement, the corporate stated. Twitter was unsparing, calling his escape technique a “mannequin of hypocrisy” and a “mannequin of unhealthy religion.” It backed up its argument with quite a few tweets from the billionaire.

Listed below are the details that Twitter made to attempt to present that it was not in breach of the deal and that Mr. Musk was.

Twitter says it gave Mr. Musk crucial disclosure on spam accounts.

Opposite to Mr. Musk’s claims that Twitter stonewalled his efforts for info on spam accounts, the corporate stated in its lawsuit that it had supplied him with knowledge. When Mr. Musk requested for the knowledge, the corporate honored a few of his requests, like handing over its so-called fire hose, or huge stream of tweets.

However even because it did so, Twitter stated in its swimsuit, Mr. Musk’s calls for for info turned progressively irrational.

“From the outset, defendants’ info requests have been designed to attempt to tank the deal,” in accordance with the lawsuit. “Musk’s more and more outlandish requests mirror not a real examination of Twitter’s processes however a litigation-driven marketing campaign to attempt to create a report of noncooperation on Twitter’s half.”

Twitter says it didn’t have a ‘materials antagonistic impact.’

Mr. Musk has argued that Twitter’s public disclosures that about 5 % of its customers are bots are materially deceptive, which might represent a “materials antagonistic impact” beneath the phrases of the deal. Mr. Musk’s contract with Twitter requires that its regulatory disclosures since January be correct.

However Twitter famous that its regulatory filings had warned that the figures have been estimates. (Twitter’s chief government, Parag Agrawal, has outlined how the corporate detects and fights spam bots.) Twitter additionally stated the existence of bots was a part of the explanation that Mr. Musk wished to purchase Twitter.

Twitter says it ran its enterprise because it ordinarily would and stored Mr. Musk up to date.

Mr. Musk has stated one more reason he wished to drag out of the deal was that Twitter didn’t function its enterprise as he anticipated it could whereas the acquisition was closing. Amongst different issues, Mr. Musk stated, Twitter slowed its hiring and didn’t give him a heads up before recently firing two executives, which he stated breached the phrases of the deal contract.

However Twitter stated in its lawsuit that its slowdown in hiring aligned with what Mr. Musk had instructed the corporate he wished. The corporate added that it had notified Mr. Musk’s attorneys of its choice to let go of the 2 executives and that the attorneys had “raised no objection.” The swimsuit didn’t say when Mr. Musk’s attorneys have been notified of these choices.

Twitter says Mr. Musk breached the settlement by stopping efforts to shut the deal.

Underneath the phrases of the settlement, Mr. Musk should use “cheap finest efforts” to shut the deal, together with securing debt financing for the $44 billion buy.

However Twitter stated in its lawsuit that Mr. Musk had appeared to desert efforts to finish his debt financing, contravening the settlement. Moreover, the corporate stated, he disappeared when Twitter’s executives, together with Ned Segal, its chief monetary officer, reached out to debate the figures about spam accounts that Mr. Musk had professed to be involved about.

Mr. Musk additionally appeared to eliminate executives who have been working to assist him shut the deal, reminiscent of Bob Swan, a former chief government of Intel, in accordance with the lawsuit. On June 23, Mr. Musk instructed Twitter that “he had requested Swan ‘to depart the deal proceedings, as we aren’t on the identical wavelength,’” the swimsuit stated.

Twitter says Mr. Musk breached the deal phrases by disparaging the corporate.

The deal contract additionally stated Mr. Musk couldn’t disparage Twitter or its staff in tweets. But he did so a number of occasions, Twitter contended, violating the settlement.

The lawsuit included screenshots of quite a few Mr. Musk’s tweets, together with one which stated a lawyer from Twitter had knowledgeable him he had violated a nondisclosure settlement. In one other, Mr. Musk used a poop emoji in response to a tweet from Mr. Agrawal. As well as, Twitter pointed to Mr. Musk’s feedback, on Twitter and at conferences, that publicly doubted the veracity of Twitter’s disclosures of its spam accounts.