The Tesla Inc. CEO spoke publicly for the first time on Monday after announcing he would reject the deal with Twitter because it broke many merger agreement clauses.
After Going Silent on Friday, Musk Responses to Twitter via Meme
After deciding to back out of the $44 billion acquisition bid, Elon Musk ridiculed Twitter Inc.'s threat to sue him on Monday, July 11, writing that the social media company would have to provide more information on bots and spam accounts.
The Tesla Inc. CEO spoke publicly for the first time on Monday after announcing on Friday, July 8, that he intended to reject the offer because Twitter had broken many merger agreement clauses.
Those familiar with the situation say Twitter intends to sue Musk as early as this week to force him to finish the transaction.
According to legal experts, the 16-year-old social network firm has a solid legal case against Musk. Still, it could renegotiate or reach a settlement instead of a protracted legal battle.
A note from Jefferies analyst Brent Thill said that they think Elon Musk's plans to cancel the merger are more motivated by the recent market decline than by Twitter's 'failure' to comply with his demands.
The amount of bots on Twitter has been a topic of discussion between Mr. Musk and Twitter for some time. Musk mentioned the number of spam accounts in his first news statement about purchasing the business.
He has since claimed that Twitter's statistics on bots are inaccurate. When CEO Parag Agrawal explained how Twitter assesses fraudulent accounts in a lengthy discussion, Elon Musk replied with the poop emoji.
Elon Musk's Issues with Twitter Last Week
On Friday, July 8, several reports spread after Elon Musk stated he no longer wanted to purchase Twitter. The billionaire CEO of Tesla intends to cancel the contract, as his legal team claimed in an SEC filing. This is because Twitter made false and misleading claims.
They also claimed that Twitter is significantly understating the figure in the SEC filing, adding that a preliminary review by the billionaire's advisors of the disclosed data indicates that the figure is substantially higher. This is in response to the social network company's statement that less than 5% of all daily users of the app are bogus identities, and it has given Musk various facts to back up its assertions.
A lawsuit against Elon Musk was then reportedly prepared by Twitter after his withdrawal announcements as a way to enforce the agreement.
Subsequently, Twitter Chief Counsel Sean Edgett allegedly gave a memo to employees on the same day the company encouraged personnel to refrain from tweeting, slacking off, or publishing any criticism regarding the takeover agreement.
Edgett's order came after several employees posted funny tweets about the situation. One individual tweeted that they had unilaterally canceled their mortgage and were pleased they were no longer responsible for paying it.
