Lawyers for Twitter are using Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s text messages to try to convince a Delaware judge to acquire the company due to buyer’s remorse, rather than the social network.
Bill Savitt, a Twitter lawyer, brought up a text message between Musk and one of his bankers as evidence during a hearing in the Court of Chancery on Tuesday. In the May 8 message, Musk called on the banker to slow down the deal process until after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a speech the next day, during which the president defended his decision to invade Ukraine.
“There will be no point in buying Twitter if we are heading into World War 3,” Musk wrote. He had already agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion two weeks earlier.
Tuesday’s hearing before Delaware Chancery Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick focused on Musk’s request to delay trial, now set for Oct. 17, following allegations by a whistleblower that Twitter misled to investors about spam and bot accounts, a claim that is at the center of Musk’s effort to get out of the deal. The judge is expected to rule on the matter later this week.
The San Francisco-based social network is trying to force Musk to complete its purchase proposal, alleging that Twitter had not given it the required information about the veracity of the accounts.
Twitter argues that the reason Musk is walking away from its acquisition of the social media company is due to poor market conditions, due in part to Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Musk, for his part, argues that fake users and spam accounts make up a much larger part of Twitter’s daily active user base than the company lets on, giving him reason to cancel his planned acquisition.
Facebook Comments
Disqus