“In April 2022, Elon Musk entered right into a binding merger settlement with Twitter, promising to make use of his greatest efforts to get the deal finished. Now, lower than three months later, Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders as a result of the deal he signed now not serves his private pursuits. Having mounted a public spectacle to place Twitter in play, and having proposed after which signed a seller-friendly merger settlement, Musk apparently believes that he – in contrast to each different get together topic to Delaware contract regulation – is free to vary his thoughts, trash the corporate, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder worth, and stroll away.”

Nothing being hidden behind authorized jargon there, Twitter is pissed, and so they’re now seeking to make Elon pay for what he’s finished to their inventory, their firm, their future prospects, and so forth.

Within the newest improvement within the ongoing Twitter/Musk saga, Twitter has formally launched authorized motion to counter Musk’s effort to terminate the deal, because of, in line with Musk, Twitter’s unwillingness to offer him and his workforce with enough information to show its utilization claims, and different components.

However Twitter says that Musk can’t exit the deal now, and it has a spread of examples of dangerous religion actions and public disclosures on Musk’s half which it says are in violation of the unique settlement.

Particularly:

• Twitter says that Musk has been performing in opposition to the proposed deal for the reason that market began its current downturn, and has breached the merger settlement repeatedly within the course of
• Twitter says that Musk has claimed to place the deal ‘on maintain’ pending the satisfaction of ‘imaginary circumstances’, and has breached his financing efforts obligations within the course of
• Musk has boasted publicly about violating his non-disclosure obligations beneath the unique contract, each in relation to Twitter’s mDAU metric calculations and different inside information factors
• Musk has additionally repeatedly violated his non-disparagement obligation within the contract by means of public criticism of the corporate, and has misused confidential info in his public statements about faux accounts and Twitter’s processes.
• Twitter says that one of many fundamental causes Musk cited for purchasing Twitter was to rid the platform of bots, which Musk is now utilizing as a purpose to not purchase it. The 2 stances appear to battle

In abstract, Twitter says that Musk has leveled severe expenses, each publicly and thru lawyer letters, that Twitter has misled its buyers and prospects, which has materially broken the corporate’s prospects, in violation of the agreed phrases of the acquisition. Moreover, Twitter has outlined, intimately, the way it’s labored to satisfy all of Musk’s info requests, past what it’s beneath obligation to do.

But, regardless of, this, Musk is now seeking to exit the deal anyway – which, Twitter says, is definitely the final word plan:

“From the outset, [the] defendants’ info requests had been designed to attempt to tank the deal. Musk’s more and more outlandish requests replicate not a real examination of Twitter’s processes however a litigation-driven marketing campaign to attempt to create a report of non-cooperation on Twitter’s half. When Twitter nonetheless bent over backwards to handle the more and more burdensome requests, Musk resorted to false assertions that it had not.”

Twitter’s overview is an intensive and scathing evaluation of Musk’s actions, which exhibits that Twitter has been taking notes, and has measured its authorized case rigorously. In some methods, the submission reads like an inventory of grievances that Twitter’s been simply ready to air out, and now, with Musk difficult the deal, it has a possibility to take action.

Which is probably going not good – both for Musk or in the end Twitter itself.

Twitter additionally makes some fascinating revelations about how the Musk push has impacted the corporate, together with this be aware about worker retention.

“Musk has unreasonably withheld consent to 2 worker retention packages designed to maintain chosen prime expertise throughout a interval of intense uncertainty generated largely by Musk’s erratic conduct and public disparagement of the corporate and its personnel […] Worker attrition, in the meantime, has been on the upswing for the reason that signing of the merger settlement.”

One more reason acknowledged by Musk’s workforce for searching for to exit the deal has been the lack of key government employees on the firm, which materially alters the make-up of the group. Twitter not solely says that this isn’t a part of the unique settlement – because it particularly ensured any such provision was overlooked – but in addition, as identified right here, that it has tried to work with Musk to handle precisely this both approach.

Twitter has additionally included this description of Musk’s efforts to make use of its information API to scan for faux accounts:

“Twitter additionally defined that it had positioned “no synthetic throttling of fee limits” [on Musk’s access]. In follow-up correspondence, it turned clear that the “restrict” Musk had bumped up in opposition to was not the results of throttling however a default 100,000-per-month restrict on the variety of queries that could possibly be carried out. Together with his undisclosed workforce of information reviewers working behind the scenes, Musk had hit that restrict inside about two weeks.”

What the heck are Musk and Co. doing there? 10k queries in opposition to the info, in two weeks? No concept how they’re looking for faux and spam accounts, however that appears extreme (Twitter notes that it eliminated the question cap to allow Musk’s workforce to proceed their evaluation).

General, what Twitter’s saying right here is that it believes Musk has acted in dangerous religion, and that he’s solely searching for to get out of the deal now because of the market downturn, which has impacted his private wealth, together with total market efficiency.

However letting Musk exit now would depart the corporate in a a lot worse state:

“Due to defendants’ breaches and the uncertainty they’ve generated, Twitter faces irreparable hurt. Defendants stipulated within the merger settlement that “irreparable harm for which financial damages, even when accessible, wouldn’t be an enough treatment would happen within the occasion that the events hereto don’t carry out the provisions of this Settlement (together with failing to take such actions as are required of it hereunder to consummate this Settlement) in accordance with its specified phrases or in any other case breach such provisions.”

There’s additionally this:

“For Musk, it could appear, Twitter, the pursuits of its stockholders, the transaction Musk agreed to, and the courtroom course of to implement all of it represent an elaborate joke.”

Richest man on this planet or not, Twitter’s sick of Musk’s antics, and it clearly has no intention of letting him off the $44 b hook.

Twitter additionally reiterates that there is no such thing as a financing contingency and no diligence situation.

“The deal is backed by hermetic debt and fairness commitments.”

‘Hermetic’, which Twitter can be seeking to implement because it seeks to consummate the Musk deal, whether or not Elon likes it or not.

And once more, the final word loser right here can be Twitter, the corporate, which continues to lose employees because of uncertainty, and can finally find yourself within the fingers of somebody who actually doesn’t need to personal it.

That doesn’t appear to be the best basis for future success, however that’s the place we’re at.

Musk hasn’t offered any detailed response to Twitter’s counter claims as but, although he did as soon as once more publish a cryptic tweet following the discharge.

Whether or not Musk will truly be laughing on the finish of this appears more and more uncertain.