Twitter filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk after the billionaire said he wanted to withdraw a $ 44 billion (£ 36.5 billion) deal to take over the company.
The social media company has asked a Delaware court to order Musk to complete the merger at the agreed price of $ 54.20 per Twitter share.
In his court statement, he said: “After organizing a public show to stake Twitter and proposing and then signing a favorable merger agreement for the seller, Musk believes that he – unlike any other party subject to contract law. Delaware – be free to change your mind, destroy the company, stop its operations, destroy shareholder value and walk away. “
Twitter chairman Bret Taylor tweeted that the board filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Chancellery Court “to hold Elon Musk responsible for its contractual obligations “.
The court often deals with commercial disputes between the numerous companies, including Twitter, that are incorporated into it.
Mr. Musk, the richest man in the world, said last week that he is finish the deal because the social media company violated the agreement by not responding to inquiries regarding fake or spam accounts on the platforms, which is critical to its business performance.
His representatives said Twitter had not provided the data and information requested by Mr. Musk to allow him to “make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts” on the social media platform.
“At times Twitter ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, at times rejected them for reasons that seem unwarranted, and at times claimed to comply by providing Mr. Musk with incomplete or unusable information,” they said in a statement.
Last month, Twitter claimed it was providing Mr. Musk with a “fire pump” of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets.
For years, the company has claimed in regulatory documents that it believes around 5% of the accounts on its platform are fake.
Musk also said Twitter broke the acquisition deal when it fired two top managers and fired a third of its talent acquisition team.
Musk tells Donald Trump to “sail into the sunset”
Meanwhile, the SpaceX and Tesla boss clashed with Donald Trumptelling the former president of the United States that it is time for him to “put on his hat and sail into the sunset”.
The first salvo in the bickering appears to have been some non-positive comments about the Tesla boss that Trump made at a rally in Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday.
“(Musk) said the other day, I’ve never voted for a Republican,” Trump said.
“I said I didn’t know; he told me he voted for me. He’s another fucking artist, but he won’t buy it (Twitter).”
Musk responded on Twitter, saying, “I don’t hate that man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset.”
