Twitter Responds to Elon Musk’s Claims, Calls Them ‘Excuses’

San Francisco, August 5: Twitter denied in a court docket submitting that it had disadvantaged its would-be acquirer, billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, of essential info or misrepresented particulars about its enterprise.

Musk initially made these prices to justify his try to again out of a $44 billion deal to purchase the social platform, which he later claimed was infested with a lot bigger numbers of “spam bots” and faux accounts than Twitter had disclosed. Twitter vs Elon Musk: Authorized Battle Over Cancellation of $44 Billion Takeover Deal To Begin From October 17.

That destiny of that acquisition, which Musk agreed to with out taking the time to look at the main points of Twitter’s enterprise, now rests with a Delaware court docket the place Twitter sued to drive Musk to complete the deal. The case is scheduled to go to trial on October 17.

The court docket’s resolution may in the end decide the way forward for a social platform used every day by 238 million individuals across the globe – a small viewers by the requirements of Fb and different main platforms, however one which embrace political leaders, main entertainers and specialists on quite a lot of topics. Till January 2021, it was additionally house to the then-US president, Donald Trump.

In an surprising twist, Twitter was in a position to file its response to Musk earlier than Musk’s personal counterclaims have surfaced in public. A choose dominated on Wednesday that Musk’s counterclaim shall be made public by Friday.

Components of Musk’s counterclaim, nonetheless, was included in Twitter’s response. These embrace accusing the corporate of fraud and “delay tactics” and solely offering Musk “sanitised, incomplete information” in reply to his questions on spam accounts and different firm metrics.

Whereas Twitter has claimed that Musk is inventing causes to get out of shopping for the corporate, Musk’s attorneys say that Twitter is the one holding again the deal by “dragging its feet” and offering inadequate knowledge to the billionaire’s requests.

In a reply filed Thursday in Delaware Chancery Courtroom, Twitter calls Musk’s reasoning “a story, imagined in an effort to escape a merger agreement that Musk no longer found attractive”.

“The counterclaims are a made-for-litigation tale that is contradicted by the evidence and common sense,” Twitter’s response says. “Musk invents representations Twitter never made and then tries to wield, selectively, the extensive confidential data Twitter provided him to conjure a breach of those purported representations.”

On the identical time, the response says, Musk additionally accused Twitter of breaching their settlement by “stonewalling” his info requests. Representatives for Musk didn’t instantly return a message for remark Thursday, though Musk briefly talked about Twitter at Tesla’s annual shareholders assembly Thursday.

He advised an viewers at Tesla’s manufacturing facility close to Austin, Texas, that Twitter match into the grand imaginative and prescient for his holding firm. He mentioned that since he makes use of Twitter rather a lot, with greater than 100 million followers, he is aware of what to do with it.

“I do understand the product quite well,” he said. “So I think I’ve got a good sense of where to point the engineering team at Twitter to make it radically better,” he mentioned.

Attorneys for Musk had wished to file a public model of their reply and counterclaims in Delaware court docket Wednesday. However Twitter attorneys complained that they wanted extra time to evaluate and doubtlessly redact Musk’s sealed submitting, saying it refers “extensively” to inner Twitter info and knowledge given to Musk.

Musk, the world’s richest man, agreed in April to purchase Twitter and take it non-public, providing $54.20 a share and vowing to loosen the corporate’s policing of content material and to root out faux accounts. Amongst different issues, Musk mentioned he would restore Trump – who was banned from Twitter following the January 6, 2021, riots on the US Capitol – to the platform.

However Musk mentioned in July that he wished to again out of the deal, prompting Twitter to file a lawsuit to maintain him to the “seller-friendly” settlement. Musk says Twitter has failed to present him sufficient details about the variety of faux accounts on its service. Twitter argues that Musk, CEO of electrical automotive maker and photo voltaic power firm Tesla Inc, is intentionally attempting to tank the deal as a result of market situations have deteriorated and the acquisition not serves his pursuits.

Both Musk or Twitter could be entitled to a $1 billion breakup charge if the opposite get together is discovered accountable for the settlement failing. Twitter needs extra, nonetheless, and is searching for a court docket order of “specific performance” directing Musk to observe by with the deal.

(That is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated Information feed, OKEEDA Employees could not have modified or edited the content material physique)