Elon Musk stated that his $44 billion bid to acquire the company should proceed under the terms of the original agreement if Twitter Inc. could disclose its technique of selecting 100 accounts and how it verified that the accounts are legitimate.
Musk tweeted early on Saturday,
“However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially inaccurate, then it should not.”
Twitter rejected Musk’s allegations that he was duped into signing the agreement to purchase the social media business on Thursday, calling them “implausible and contrary to fact.”
Twitter referred to Musk’s justification as “a fabrication, invented in an effort to escape a merger deal that Musk no longer deemed desirable” in a response it filed on Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court.
Twitter’s reaction stated that the counterclaims were “a made-for-litigation story that is contradicted by the evidence and common sense.” Musk fabricates claims Twitter never made and then tries to use, selectively, the vast amount of confidential information Twitter gave him to construct a breach of those claimed claims.
The allegations were made by Musk in a countersuit that was filed last Friday and was made public on Thursday.
A Perfect Fine
San Francisco-based Twitter’s attorneys claim in their case that they will only need four days in court to convince the judge that Musk must uphold his end of the bargain and pay $54.20 per share for the social media business.
According to Brian Quinn, a Boston College law professor who specializes in mergers and acquisitions law, if they win and the court rules that Musk is responsible and must pay up, Delaware’s civil contempt laws could be used if he didn’t comply.
According to Quinn, “a judge could hold him in contempt and impose a daily fee until he complies.” That would need to be a sizable sum for Musk.
