Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) — Advisors to Tesla CEO Elon Musk have sent another termination letter to Twitter, notifying it that the acquisition agreement has been terminated.
In response, Twitter responded that Musk’s termination letter was invalid and false; that Twitter said it had not breached any representations or obligations under the agreement; that the company had not been, and was unlikely to be, materially adversely affected; and that Twitter planned to execute the agreement and complete the transaction at the price and terms agreed with Musk.
As previously reported, Musk sent a termination letter to Twitter as early as July 8, but it was found to be invalid. Musk’s side said the letter sent this time highlighted additional reasons for terminating the merger agreement, with a whistleblower letter from former Twitter security chief Peiter Zatko serving as a new weapon in Musk’s legal battle between the two sides.
Previously in July, former Twitter security chief Peiter Zatko submitted a complaint to U.S. officials about three major problems with Twitter – outdated systems and software that could not withstand external hackers; confusing employee permissions that allowed free access to user data; and vulnerabilities in the process of detecting the number of fake accounts.
Zatko also accused Twitter of failing to protect sensitive user data and lying about its security.
Zatko’s complaints echo some of the allegations or questions Musk has made about Twitter’s user base, and as a result, Musk said in the filing that Twitter had omitted information or misled information in the acquisition, entitling participating investors to compensation.
In addition, it is worth noting that the road to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, which also had its share of ups and downs, began as early as April 14, when Musk proposed to acquire Twitter.
On April 25, Twitter and Musk reached an agreement that Musk would buy Twitter for $54.2 per share, a total price of $44 billion in cash, and Twitter would become a private holding company.
On May 13, Musk tweeted that he suspended the acquisition of Twitter and was waiting for more details to prove that the percentage of Twitter’s spam or fake accounts was indeed below 5%; he later added that he remained committed to the acquisition.
But Musk eventually decided to terminate the acquisition, and on July 8, Musk’s lawyers wrote to Twitter that Musk would terminate the acquisition of Twitter. The letter claimed that Twitter had violated several terms of the acquisition contract.
On July 12, Twitter sued Musk in the U.S. Court of Chancery in Delaware, demanding that Musk complete the acquisition of Twitter. on July 19, Twitter’s request for an expedited trial was granted, and the trial is scheduled for October 2022.
However, Musk had tried to request that the trial date be postponed until 2023, but that request was denied by the judge, who accepted Twitter’s request to expedite the matter.
