Twitter Sues Elon Musk to Force $44 Billion Merger

[MacRumors]

As promised, Twitter today sued Elon Musk in an attempt to force Musk to go through with the $44 billion purchase of Twitter, reports Reuters. Twitter in the lawsuit accuses Musk of trashing the company, disrupting its operations, and destroying stockholder value.

Having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play, and having proposed and then signed a seller-friendly merger agreement, Musk apparently believes that he - unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law - is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.

Last Friday, Musk told Twitter that he was terminating the deal because of "material breach of multiple provisions of the agreement." Musk has said that he does not believe Twitter's claim that fake or spam accounts represent less than five percent of users.

Musk claimed that Twitter did not comply with its contractual agreements because he was not provided with the relevant business information that he requested about spam account data.

After Musk said that he wanted to call off the merger agreement, Twitter chairman Bret Taylor said that Twitter's board was "committed to closing the transaction" and planned to pursue legal action to enforce the agreement.

Musk initially offered to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per share in April, and Twitter accepted the offer. The deal is worth $44 billion, though Musk and Twitter could settle and call off the purchase if Musk pays a $1 billion+ fine and Twitter accepts.

Article Link: Twitter Sues Elon Musk to Force $44 Billion Merger

 

[sniffies]

What a mess

 

[ct2k7]

this will be spicy

 

[rhett7660]

What a mess

That is an understatement...

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I figured this was coming. It was just a matter of time. Watch him say, he doesn't have any money left, lol! Does he even have that much money?

 

[CWallace]

Twitter has little choice but to force the issue if they believe Musk still has the ability (financial backing) to complete the deal because it is by far the best offer they are going to get for the company now and having accepted the deal (via the vote of the shareholders) they are probably legally bound to try and see it through.

In addition to Twitter's suit, I expect it is only a matter of time before we start seeing Class Action suits filed against Musk by stockholders for all the value that has been wiped out these past few months.

 

[Andres Cantu]

Merger? Is Elon fusing with the Twitter bird or what? 😆

 

[JPack]

"I'd say Twitter is well-positioned legally to argue that it provided him with all the necessary information and this is a pretext to looking for any excuse to get out of the deal," said Ann Lipton, associate dean for faculty research at Tulane Law School.

Yep, this much is obvious. You don't go in, agree to a deal, and then back out pretending you don't believe Twitter's data estimates.

 

[contacos]

I almost admire his attitude of not giving a F


His Tweets in the last 24 hours:

 

[progx]

I figured this was coming. It was just a matter of time. Watch him say, he doesn't have any money left, lol! Does he even have that much money?

Most of his money is tied up in stock. Yes, this was coming, but not due to bots.

He has done something similar to this event before. He wanted to run See’s Candies out of business because he had some beef with Warren Buffet. He claimed he couldn’t find a chocolate and brittle worth buying, he backed out at the last minute. He paid the billion dollar penalty from that deal, it didn’t get as far as this one did. Get out the popcorn, this will be some entertaining stuff.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

"I'd say Twitter is well-positioned legally to argue that it provided him with all the necessary information and this is a pretext to looking for any excuse to get out of the deal," said Ann Lipton, associate dean for faculty research at Tulane Law School.

Yep, this much is obvious. You don't go in, agree to a deal, and the back out pretending you don't believe Twitter's data estimates.

I agree! Because of Elon, so many people on Twitter quit their jobs. The stock took a major hit and it was just false publicity. Almost seems like Elon was doing a stunt!

 

[Villarrealadrian]

Does anybody know if musk uses iphone or android?

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Does anybody know if musk uses iphone or android?

He's an active iPhone user. He's always tweeting with his iPhone. Not sure if he has the latest model tho.

 

[GMShadow]

trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away

Oh, was the board looking in the mirror when they wrote that part?

 

[icanhazmac]

WAR Elon!

 

[sparkinstx]

I almost admire his attitude of not giving a F


His Tweets in the last 24 hours:

If it's anything like Instagram, there's a crapton of bots on Twitter. Some IG posts are full of "promote it on..." or "DM it on..." comments, plus all the "$5000 to the first 500 users that..." comments, or the ones encouraging people to "invest with <your IG handle here>". I'm hoping they're forced to disclose how many Twitter accounts are fake.

 

[Kenjutsuz]

Make him bleed

 

[no_idea]

I hope Twitter implodes for good and can’t recover from this

 

[Danfango]

I don't know who to root for.

On one side of the ring we have a completely demented megalomaniac billionaire slave driver and on the other side we have a media megacorporation that enabled political chaos worldwide.

I think I shall just watch them consume each other then piss on the remains.

 

[Cameront9]

The stupid thing is no one that uses Twitter actually wants Musk to buy the thing.

 

[sw1tcher]

I figured this was coming. It was just a matter of time. Watch him say, he doesn't have any money left, lol! Does he even have that much money?

He sold over $16 billion worth of Tesla stock in 2021

Tesla's Musk sells shares worth more than $16 bln

Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has sold $16.4 billion worth of shares since early November when the world's richest person polled Twitter users about offloading 10% of his stake in the electric-car maker.

www.reuters.com

and about $8.5 billion worth in April in preparations to buy Twitter

Musk's Tesla stock sale windfall dwarfs Twitter loss

Elon Musk's attempt to scrap his purchase of Twitter Inc may leave the world's wealthiest person in a stronger financial position than before he unveiled the $44 billion deal.

www.reuters.com

with further funding being provided by Morgan Stanley

Elon Musk says he's secured $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter

Musk has been seeking a takeover of the social media platform since he acquired 9 percent of its shares this month.

www.nbcnews.com

so yeah, he has the money/can get it.

 

[Art Mark]

I figured this was coming. It was just a matter of time. Watch him say, he doesn't have any money left, lol! Does he even have that much money?

No he does not have 44 billion cash on hand. That's entirely the problem. He does not have the ability to get 44 billion in cash without basically auctioning off a ton of assets and ownership of 'his companies'. He's an egomaniac who just thinks too much of himself and now, well, he's out of screwed.

 

[Think|Different]

I really don't have any skin in the game – and don't hate/love either side – but no one looks good in this.

 

[sw1tcher]

It's the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Apple.

Elon Musk once wanted to have a meeting with Tim Cook to talk about Apple buying Tesla, but Cook ghosted Musk. I think one of the conditions for the sale was for Musk to be CEO of Apple. The **** show we're seeing now between Musk and Twitter is what we might have gotten if Apple/Cook agreed to buy Tesla.

 

[xxray]

Good. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. You can’t force a company to be bought out by you one day, and then change your mind and start trashing the company afterwards, decreasing its value and destabilizing it. Actions have consequences.