Source: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty
Elon Musk is now thumbing his nose at Twitter, amid the news that the social media platform intends to sue him for backing out of his highly publicized deal to buy the company. Twitter secured the services of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz LLP to go after the world’s richest person, according to a recent report from Bloomberg.
“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 tweeted on Friday.
Unnamed sources informed Bloomberg that the case will be heard in Delaware, where Twitter is headquartered. This is doubly important because Delaware Chancery Court reputedly does not take well to mergers-and-acquisitions deals that are terminated without just cause.
Musk’s contention, however, is that Twitter hasn’t provided enough data to prove that a substantial amount of its accounts aren’t bots. And he’s allegedly called in Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, the largest business litigation firm in the world, to face off against Twitter.
Musk’s sudden about-face doesn’t only affect his own relationship with Twitter, though. Dan Ives, Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Wedbush Securities, said that Musk’s actions will only serve to crater the company’s stock price further and reduce any faith any other interested parties may have had in the platform’s future.
“Monday, this is a $25 stock,” he predicted on Friday, according to NBC News. “The company has been in pure chaos — people have left in droves, and now competitors are going to seize on the ad dollars. With the employee turnover, it’s going to be viewed as damaged goods from another potential buyer.”
