Twitter is dragging Elon Musk to court after he abandoned the deal to acquire the social media platform.
On Tuesday, Twitter filed a complaint against the Tesla founder in the Delaware Court of Chancery. In the lawsuit, attorneys for the platform wrote they are seeking legal action to prevent Musk from breaching the contract further with hopes of forcing him to complete the deal. Twitter and Musk entered into a “binding merger agreement” in April, orchestrating Musk’s purchase of the site for $44 billion.
“Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” the suit read.
The lawsuit comes just days after Musk’s legal team alleged in a letter that the company breached “multiple provisions” of the deal.” One key offense was Twitter allegedly withholding data that Musk requested regarding the amount of bot and spam accounts on the platform. Musk intended to use this information to get a sense of how he might address them. He first expressed his interest in buying Twitter to put an end to the countless spoof profiles and renew freedom of speech. He was even considering reversing Donald Trump’s ban on the platform, despite his past hurtful comments.
Once news spread of the lawsuit, Musk tweeted, “Oh the irony lol,” though he did not elaborate.
Shortly after the sale was announced, it appeared that Musk was having doubts due to there being more bots than he originally thought. Some experts believe he is simply using this excuse to avoid paying the hefty cost of the site.
The complaint is demanding that Musk complete the purchase or pay a $1 billion fee to terminate the contract as outlined in the original agreement. Twitter is requesting that a four-day expedited trial take place in September.
