Twitter Officially Sues Elon Musk

Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk for allegedly trying to exit the $44 billion acquisition deal.

Twitter and Elon Musk Will Face in the Courts

On Tuesday, Twitter filed a complaint with the Delaware Chancery Court stating that the billionaire had illegally breached his agreement to buy the company, according to Engadget, citing a The New York Times report.

"Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests," the complaint reads.

Meanwhile, The Verge noted that Musk responded with a tweet of his own shortly after Twitter filed the lawsuit.

The Tesla CEO Initially Want to Acquire the Social Media Platform

Musk announced in April that he wanted to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per share, which will amount to roughly $44 billion. Less than two weeks later, Twitter agreed to this proposal. However, the acquisition did not proceed as easily as one may have hoped.

Why Did Musk Haven't Proceed With the Acquisition

In May, the Tesla CEO stated that the agreement was "temporarily on hold" while his team investigated if bots indeed constituted less than 5% of Twitter's entire user base, as the company has consistently asserted.

After a few weeks, as per Engadget, Musk then made a threat to withdraw the deal, claiming that Twitter had broken their agreement by withholding enough details about the issue, constituting a "material breach."

In response, Twitter gave Musk complete access to its internal "firehose," although this action seems to have had no effect on the billionaire. The Verge, however, noted that Musk's legal team reportedly requested more than that, including executive emails and text messages on the subject.

Twitter Filed a Lawsuit To Complete Musk's $44 Billion Acquisition of the Social Media Platform

According to Engadget, Twitter claimed that Musk didn't ask the social media giant to give any estimations of fake accounts before he made his proposal.

"Musk apparently believes that he - unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law," Twitter said in its filing (via Engadget), "is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk way."

Meanwhile, The Verge noted that many of Musk's own tweets were highlighted in the lawsuit, including his public request for an SEC investigation, the poop emoji he used to respond to CEO Parag Agrawal, and memes Musk recently tweeted.

A substantial portion of the lawsuit also discusses Musk's alleged attempts to thwart Twitter's efforts to keep its talented employees despite the company's dwindling morale. Twitter also argued that Musk has prevented it from establishing employee retention efforts and that employee departures have increased since the merger agreement was signed.

Citing a memo obtained by The New York Times' Mike Issac, The Verge reported that Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal wrote an internal memo on Tuesday evening, in an effort to allay employee worries.

Now that Twitter has filed a lawsuit, the stage is set for Musk to file a countersuit in return.