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Tag: lawsuit

  • Twitter sues Elon Musk for breaching $44 bn deal, he reacts with a meme

    Twitter sues Elon Musk for breaching $44 bn deal, he reacts with a meme

    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.

    ALSO READ | The Twitter-Elon Musk tussle: To be ‘bot’ or not to be

    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.

  • Universal Music to cough up $11.5 million to settle digital royalties class action

    Universal Music to cough up $11.5 million to settle digital royalties class action

    MUMBAI: Universal Music Group (UMG) has agreed to cough up $11.5 million as settlement to its artists Rick James and Chuck D of Public Enemy and others. 

     

    In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that UMG failed to pay proper royalties to certain artists when consumers bought MP3 files from digital music retailers. 

     

    In this regard, UMG, on behalf of UMG Recordings Inc. and Capitol Records LLC, and plaintiffs’ attorneys representing clients in class action lawsuits regarding digital download royalties submitted a settlement for preliminary court approval.

     

    Under the proposed terms, UMG will contribute a maximum of $11.5 million to supplement payments to class members for past digital download activity, cover attorneys’ fees and administrative costs, and also increase digital download royalties by approximately 10 per cent going forward to class members who submit a claim.

     

    In the settlement agreement, UMG specifically denies the plaintiffs’ claims, and states that it agreed to settle the claims rather than continue to litigate the matter to avoid the associated legal expenses.

     

    In a statement, UMG said, “Although we are confident we appropriately paid royalties on digital downloads and adhered to the terms of contracts, we are pleased to amicably resolve this matter and avoid continued legal costs.”

     

    Len Simon, one of the lead plaintiffs’ attorneys, said, “This settlement is a fair resolution of this controversy over how to compensate artists for their valuable work in a new medium which we believe was not contemplated by their contracts, many drafted in the 1970s or 1980s. And it compensates these artists now, rather than after additional years of litigation and uncertainty.”

  • ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ publishing partner wins lawsuit

    ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ publishing partner wins lawsuit

    MUMBAI: In a verdict with blockbuster implications, a jury in the case of Pedroza vs. Hayward and TWCS Operations Proprietary awarded a victory to Jennifer Lynn Pedroza in a dispute over royalty rights for the publishing phenomenon Fifty Shades of Grey. The jury’s verdict was announced by Pendroza’s attorneys at Vincent Lopez Serafino Jenevein, PC. 

     

    The original publisher of the trio of books was The Writer’s Coffee Shop, an independent publisher of e-books and print-on-demand books. The plaintiff, Jennifer Pedroza was one of four original partners in the start-up company that published Fifty Shades of Grey. The Writer’s Coffee Shop eventually sold the publishing rights to the books to Random House. 

     

    The verdict has confirmed that Jennifer Pedroza was a partner in The Writer’s Coffee Shop. The jury determined that fraud had been committed by Amanda Hayward and TWCS Operations Proprietary when they induced Pedroza into a Service Agreement, and also deprived her of her share of one of the most successful book deals in history. To date Fifty Shades of Grey has sold more than 100 million copies and is currently on the New York Times best seller list. 

     

    Damages will be assessed at a later court hearing after a forensic audit determines Pedroza’s appropriate share of royalties. Pedroza was represented by the Dallas law firm of Vincent Lopez Serafino Jenevein, PC.