Elon Musk strikes back. Following the complaint filed by the social network aimed at forcing it to continue its acquisition at 44 billion dollars, the billionaire also filed a complaint against Twitter. The lawsuit, filed confidentially, is reported by Reuters, which adds that a redacted version of the 164-page document may soon be made public. The arguments put forward by Elon Musk are therefore not yet known, nor the reasons why he filed this complaint confidentially when he does not hesitate to pour out on social networks or in front of the press.
A trial in October
This filing of a complaint comes just after the date of the trial has been set. The start of it has been set for October 17 and will be spread over 5 days. The goal is to determine, during this hearing, whether or not Elon Musk can refuse to pursue the acquisition of Twitter.
The billionaire announced last April that he had reached an acquisition agreement with Twitter for $44 billion. But a few weeks later, Elon Musk temporarily suspended his offer. He mentioned the spam and fake accounts that would be present in large numbers on the platform and would make it difficult to market targeted advertising. Since then, the billionaire has continued to highlight this subject of fake accounts until ending the acquisition agreement in early July.
The setting of a relatively close date responds to the requests of the social network, but not to those of Elon Musk who wanted a long trial at a distant date. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court decided on the date to limit potential harm to Twitter from the uncertainty of the deal. The action of the social network having regularly fallen according to the twists and turns of this soap opera. Twitter blames this legal battle for its falling revenue and the chaos within the company.
A shareholder initiates a lawsuit
If the date of the trial is fixed, it is still necessary to precisely define its contours. The parties disagree over access to internal documents and other evidence, Reuters reports. Elon Musk accuses Twitter of dragging its feet and not responding to his requests. Twitter for its part accuses the billionaire of requesting huge amounts of data unrelated to the main problem of the case. Namely: did he violate the acquisition contract or not?
At the same time, a Twitter shareholder also filed a lawsuit on Friday July 29 against Elon Musk. Luigi Crispo, who owns 5,500 Twitter shares, is asking the court to order the billionaire to complete the deal, and find that he breached his fiduciary duty to Twitter shareholders to award them damages for the losses he caused.