Twitter threatens to sue Elon Musk for backing out of $44 billion deal

Twitter is threatening to sue Elon Musk after he gave notice to the company that he no longer is interested in buying Twitter for the $44 billion that he originally offered.

Musk’s attorneys said in a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing dated July 8: “Mr. Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement.”

Twitter executives responded, saying that the company is still open to making a deal with the Tesla CEO, but added that they will take Musk to court in order to secure the original $44 billion offer.

“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor said Friday. “We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”

Musk previously pushed to renegotiate the $44 billion offer after complaining that Twitter executives weren’t being transparent when he questioned them on the number of “bots” or spam accounts on the platform, which he believes to be much higher than the company admits.

In May, Musk had put the Twitter deal “temporarily on hold” over these concerns but said shortly after that he remained “committed to acquisition.”

Twitter Employees have since been instructed not to publicly comment on the deal. Sean Edgett, Twitter’s general counsel, said in internal memo obtained by The Verge: “Given that this is an ongoing legal matter, you should refrain from Tweeting, Slacking, or sharing any commentary about the merger agreement. We will continue to share information when we are able, but please know we are going to be very limited on what we can share in the meantime.”