(FiveNation.com)- In a Delaware court on Tuesday, Twitter sued Elon Musk for pulling out of his $44 billion deal to purchase the social media platform, alleging Musk tried to “trash the company,” disrupt operations, destroy shareholder value, and then walk away.
In its 241-page complaint, Twitter is demanding Musk complete the purchase deal at the originally agreed-upon price of $54.20 a share. The company accuses Musk of “a long list of material contractual breaches” that “cast a pall over Twitter and its business.”
In an SEC filing on Friday pulling out of the deal, attorneys for Musk claimed that Twitter was in “material breach of multiple provisions” of the deal, accusing the company of making “false and misleading representations” that Musk relied on when agreeing to the purchase.
Musk’s legal team also accused the social media company of ignoring and rejecting repeated requests on how Twitter calculates the percentage of fake users. Twitter had said the number of “bot” accounts is lower than 5 percent, while Musk claims the percentage could be much higher.
In its lawsuit, Twitter argued that Musk was given adequate information about fake accounts and accused the billionaire of using the “bot” argument as a “bad-faith pursuit” to “assert a baseless claim” of breach of contract.
The lawsuit includes tweets from Musk which Twitter claims were examples of his “disparaging” the company in violation of the deal agreement.
Many legal experts believe Musk will not win this suit and will be forced by a judge to follow through with the purchase deal.
However, some believe it is more likely a judge will make Musk pay a settlement or damages rather than force him to buy the company. Until the issue is settled, investors expect Twitter’s stock price to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride.
Along with its lawsuit, Twitter also filed a motion for an expedited trial to resolve the matter swiftly, asking that the case be heard in September.
The social media giant has hired corporate law heavyweight Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Kratz to represent them in the suit. Musk has retained the white-shoe firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan which has represented Tesla in the past.
