WILMINGTON, Del., July 29 (Reuters) – Elon Musk countersued Twitter Inc ( TWTR.N ) on Friday, intensifying his legal battle against the social media company over its attempt to abandon its $44 billion purchase of dollars, even though the lawsuit was filed. confidentially
Although the 164-page document was not publicly available, under court rules, a redacted version could soon be made public.
Musk’s lawsuit was filed hours after Delaware Court of Chancery Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ordered a five-day trial starting Oct. 17 to determine whether Musk can walk away from the deal.
Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also on Friday, Musk was sued by a Twitter shareholder who asked the court to order the billionaire to close the deal, find that he breached his fiduciary duty to Twitter shareholders and award damages for the losses he caused.
Musk owes a fiduciary duty to Twitter shareholders because of his 9.6% stake in the company and because the acquisition agreement gives him a veto over many of the company’s decisions, according to the suit, which look for class status. The lawsuit was filed by Luigi Crispo, owner of 5,500 shares of Twitter, in the Court of Chancery.
Musk, the world’s richest person and chief executive of Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ), said on July 8 he was abandoning the acquisition and blamed Twitter Inc for breaching the deal by misrepresenting the number of fake accounts on your platform. Read more
Twitter sued days later, calling the fake account a distraction and saying Musk was bound by the merger contract to close the deal at $54.20 a share. The company’s shares ended Friday at $41.61, the highest close since Musk walked away from the deal. Read more
McCormick accelerated the case to trial last week, saying he wanted to limit the potential damage to Twitter caused by the uncertainty of the settlement.
Twitter has blamed the legal battle for falling revenue and causing chaos at the company. Read more
The two sides had essentially agreed to a trial on Oct. 17, but disagreed over the limits of discovery, or access to internal documents and other evidence.
Musk accused Twitter this week of dragging its feet in responding to his discovery requests, and Twitter accused him of seeking large amounts of data that are irrelevant to the main issue in the case: whether Musk had violated the company’s contract. agreement
The chief judge in his Friday order seemed to anticipate discovery disputes to come.
“This order does not resolve any specific discovery disputes, including the ownership of any requests for large data sets,” McCormick said.
Musk also faces a week-long trial in Wilmington, Delaware, starting Oct. 24. A Tesla shareholder is seeking to strike down the electric vehicle maker’s record $56 billion CEO pay package as corporate waste and unjust enrichment.
Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Del. Edited by Noeleen Walder, Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Tom Hals
Thomson Reuters
Award-winning reporter covering US courts and law from the COVID-19 pandemic to high-profile criminal trials and Wall Street’s biggest failures with over two decades of experience in international financial news in Asia and Europe.