Mumbai: Tesla CEO Elon Musk was quick to react to a lawsuit filed against him by Twitter for breaching the $44 billion contract in his trademark maverick style – with a meme.
Twitter recently sued the billionaire for violating the deal to buy the micro blogging platform, accusing him of hypocrisy and asked a Delaware court to order Musk to complete the merger at the agreed $54.20 per Twitter share, according to a court filing.
“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,” stated the lawsuit.
“Twitter brings this action to enjoin Musk from further breaches, to compel Musk to fulfil his legal obligations, and to compel consummation of the merger upon satisfaction of the few outstanding conditions,” Twitter asserted in the lawsuit.
In response to the news of the lawsuit, Musk took to the microblogging site and simply tweeted, “Oh the irony lol.” Earlier, he had responded to reports of Twitter taking him to court with a hilarious meme which seemed to take potshots at the social media giant’s decision.”
The meme, accompanied by images of a laughing Musk, read: They said I cannot buy Twitter. Then they wouldn’t disclose bot info. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose both info in court.
The lawsuit could be the beginning of a long-drawn-out legal battle with both parties unwilling to climb down from their stances, as Twitter seeks to hold Musk to his deal to pay $44 billion for the company. The litigation accused Musk of “a long list” of violations of the merger agreement that “have cast a pall over Twitter and its business.”
Last week, the Tesla CEO said he was terminating the merger because Twitter violated the agreement by failing to respond to requests for information regarding fake or spam accounts on the platforms. Musk said the lack of information about spam accounts and inaccurate representations amounted to a “material adverse event.”
The standoff between the two parties has been ongoing for a while now, specifically since April this year when Musk reached an acquisition agreement with Twitter at $54.20 per share in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion. Since then, however, Musk has been challenging Twitter’s claim that less than five per cent of accounts on the platform are bots or spam, even putting the deal on hold in May to allow his team to review the veracity of Twitter’s claim.
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In June, Musk had openly accused the social media company of breaching the merger agreement and threatened to walk away and call off the acquisition of the micro blogging site for not providing the data he has requested on spam and fake accounts.
