Hours before Twitter shareholders will vote on Tuesday on whether to approve or reject Elon Musk’s takeover bid, the social media company said it is ready to move forward in his legal dispute with Musk.
The social media company said on Monday payments made to a whistleblower did not breach any terms of its $44 billion buyout by Musk, after the richest person in the world decided to scrap the blockbuster deal announced last April.
In a letter on Friday, Musk’s lawyers say Twitter’s failure to seek his consent before paying $7.75 million to whistleblower Peiter Zatko violated the merger agreement.
Last month Twitter’s former security head Zatko pointed at “extreme, egregious deficiencies” by the social media company related to privacy, security and content moderation.
“Twitter has breached none of its representations or obligations under the Agreement, and following the receipt of the approval of Twitter’s stockholders at its September 13, 2022 special meeting, all of the conditions precedent to the closing of the Merger will be satisfied,” Twitter responded to the allegation.
After seeking to take Twitter private, Musk questioned the real number of spam accounts on the media platform and from there he called the deal off.
Twitter and Musk will go on trial on Oct. 17 in Delaware to resolve Musk’s attempt to cancel his acquisition of the company unless they reach a settlement first.
