It seems the reports that Elon Musk had walked away from his $44 billion buyout offer for Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) are true. The social network has retailed a law firm to file suit against the Tesla and SpaceX CEO. Reports of the deal being on shaky ground have been circulating off and on for a while, but talks have now firmly broken down.
Twitter To Sue Elon Musk
Sources told Bloomberg that Twitter had hired law firm Wachell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in preparation for suing Elon Musk. According to the Financial Times, Twitter plans to file its lawsuit early this week in Delaware.
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The news outlet added that Twitter's law firm had previously defended Musk when Tesla shareholders sued him after the automaker's acquisition of SolarCity in 2017. The shareholders accused Musk of improperly bailing out the then-struggling solar company, which he had also been involved with prior to Tesla's acquisition of it. Musk won that lawsuit earlier this year, being cleared of any wrongdoing in the case. The law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore represented him in the 2021 trial.
The law firm Quinn Emanuel, Urquhart & Sullivan is reportedly representing Musk. Musk had bought up a stake of about 9% in Twitter before making an official offer to buy the company. However, he abandoned the deal last week, claiming that Twitter officials had refused to provide accurate data on fake or spam accounts.
The social network's lawsuit is aimed at forcing Musk to make good on his offer to pay $54.20 per share to buy it.
Musk Laughs At Twitter With Meme
In a regulatory filing on Friday, Musk stated that Twitter failed to provide enough information to prove that less than 5% of the accounts on its platform were fake or spam accounts. He alleged that the true number could be "wildly higher," suggesting that Twitter made false statements in its regulatory filings. Twitter denies Musk's claims.
In response to Twitter's lawsuit, Musk tweeted a meme of him laughing. He tweeted four photos showing different angles of himself laughing with captions saying: "They said I couldn't buy Twitter. Then they wouldn't disclose bot info. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose bot info in court."
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2022
Musk then tweeted a photo of Chuck Norris with the statement: "Chuckmate."
