Twitter Sues Elon Musk After He Pulled Out of $44 Billion Deal
Twitter has sued Elon Musk after he pulled out of the $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform.
The case will be heard in the Delaware Court of Chancery, which “specializes in corporate disputes and which previously has heard cases in which acquirers seek to renege on signed agreements.”
Twitter unleashes anger on Musk’s antics over the past three months:
Now, less than three months later, Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests. Having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play, and having proposed and then signed a seller-friendly merger agreement, Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away. This repudiation follows a long list of material contractual breaches by Musk that have cast a pall over Twitter and its business. Twitter brings this action to enjoin Musk from further breaches, to compel Musk to fulfill his legal obligations, and to compel consummation of the merger upon satisfaction of the few outstanding conditions.
The social media platform claims Musk’s reasons to terminate the agreement “lack any merit.” Musk accused Twitter of the following: “(i) purported breach of information-sharing and cooperation covenants; (ii) supposed ‘materially inaccurate representations’ in the merger agreement that allegedly are ‘reasonably likely to result in’ a Company Material Adverse Effect; and (iii) purported failure to comply with the ordinary course covenant by terminating certain employees, slowing hiring, and failing to retain key personnel.”
Twitter has abided by its covenants, and no Company Material Adverse Effect has occurred or is reasonably likely to occur. Musk, by contrast, has been acting against this deal since the market started turning, and has breached the merger agreement repeatedly in the process. He has purported to put the deal on “hold” pending satisfaction of imaginary conditions, breached his financing efforts obligations in the process, violated his obligations to treat requests for consent reasonably and to provide information about financing status, violated his non-disparagement obligation, misused confidential information, and otherwise failed to employ required efforts to consummate the acquisition.Twitter is entitled to specific performance of defendants’ obligations under the merger agreement and to secure for Twitter stockholders the benefit of Musk’s bargain. Musk and his entities should be enjoined from further breaches, ordered to comply with their obligations to work toward satisfying the few closing conditions, and ordered to close upon satisfaction of those conditions.
Twitter vs. Elon Musk by Mary Elizabeth on Scribd
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