Twitter sues Elon Musk for annulling acquisition plan

Twitter has sued the world’s richest man Elon Musk, asking that he be compelled to complete his plan to acquire the microblogging site.

Musk had agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion but he would later withdraw from the process, citing Twitter’s refusal to heed his request for ‘critical’ information.

He, among other things, accused twitter of “material breach of multiple provisions” of the merger deal. He also alleged Twitter failed to disclose information about spam bots, also known as fake accounts, on the platform. He maintained that he did not believe the company’s public statements that roughly 5 per cent of its active users are bots.

Twitter however denied the claims. The social media company Tuesday filed its suit with Chancery Court in Delaware.

It said in the suit: “Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.

“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.”

Twitter is being represented by William Savitt, a lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

The legal firm is known for its tactics to protect companies from hostile buyers and the brain behind the poison pill that Twitter used to defend itself against Mr Musk’s hostile buyout.

Mr Musk’s legal team includes his lawyer, Alex Spiro, and a team from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.