After causing controversy when he decided to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Friday that he was looking to back out of the deal. Over the last few months, the billionaire has criticized the company for not being transparent about the number of bot accounts on the platform. But while Musk might want to save his $44 billion, it appears Twitter has hired some of the biggest names in business merger law. They included Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. With top names behind them, Twitter is hoping to force Musk into the sale he originally agreed on.
According to a letter from the attorneys of the SpaceX CEO, “Mr. Musk and his financial advisors at Morgan Stanley have been requesting critical information from Twitter as far back as May 9, 2022—and repeatedly since then—on the relationship between Twitter’s disclosed mDAU figures and the prevalence of false or spam accounts on the platform,” the letter stated, adding, “Notwithstanding these repeated requests over the past two months, Twitter has still failed to provide much of the data and information responsive to Mr. Musk’s repeated requests.”
Twitter wasn’t the only one seeking the help of lawyers as Musk hired Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP to defend his side. For those who might not know, that is the same firm Musk used during his 2019 defamation case. He won that. And they are also representing him in the ongoing case surrounding his 2018 attempts to make Tesla a private company.
It should be noted that the agreement made by Musk and Twitter included a “break-up” clause that placed a $1 billion fee on either side if they were to back out of the deal. But as mentioned above, Twitter is hoping to hold him for all $44 billion. The chair of Twitter’s board, Bret Taylor admitted in a Tweet, “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. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”
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