In a Delaware court filing, Twitter Inc denied Elon Musk's accusations that he was duped into accepting the deal to buy the social media business, calling them "implausible and contrary to truth."
Musk made the charges in a sealed countersuit filed last Friday that was made public on Thursday.
"According to Musk, he — the billionaire founder of multiple companies, advised by Wall Street bankers and lawyers — was hoodwinked by Twitter into signing a $44 billion merger agreement. That story is as implausible and contrary to fact as it sounds," the filing released by Twitter on Thursday said.
Twitter's complaint is the latest shot in an increasingly bitter court battle between the world's richest person and the social media behemoth.
The two sides will go to trial on October 17 after Musk attempted to back out of his plan to acquire Twitter due to what he claims is a misrepresentation of bogus accounts on the service.
The San Francisco-based firm is attempting to compel Musk to complete the transaction and accuses him of sabotaging it since it no longer served his interests.
Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk accused Twitter of increasing up efforts to conceal the true number of its users as the market collapsed in the counterclaims made public on Thursday.
"As a long bull market was coming to a close, and the tide was going out, Twitter knew that providing the Musk Parties the information they were requesting would reveal that Twitter had been swimming naked," the counterclaims say.
According to Twitter, Musk has not "pleaded a shred of proof" for these "fact-free" assertions.
Musk also alleges that "Twitter's misrepresentations about spam and fraudulent accounts go considerably deeper than merely supplying wrong figures."
According to Musk, while "Twitter boasts 238 million'monetizable daily active users,' the users who actually see advertising" are around 65 million lower. Twitter insists that its SEC filings about monetizable daily active users were correct.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc, made a bid to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share in April, saying he believed in its potential as a global platform for free speech.
But as Twitter's stock price lagged behind his takeover attempt, he began to doubt that bot and spam accounts constituted less than 5% of users.
Musk attempted to pull out of the deal on July 8 without paying a $1 billion breakup fee, alleging Twitter's refusal to deliver information on bot and spam accounts. Four days later, Twitter sued him.
Twitter sent dozens of summons to banks, investors, and law firms that backed Musk's takeover bid earlier this week, while Musk issued subpoenas to Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan over their work.
According to legal experts, Twitter's queries indicated that the firm wanted to know why Musk turned against it, or whether he breached his commitment to get sufficient financing.
(Source:www.businesstoday.in)
Musk made the charges in a sealed countersuit filed last Friday that was made public on Thursday.
"According to Musk, he — the billionaire founder of multiple companies, advised by Wall Street bankers and lawyers — was hoodwinked by Twitter into signing a $44 billion merger agreement. That story is as implausible and contrary to fact as it sounds," the filing released by Twitter on Thursday said.
Twitter's complaint is the latest shot in an increasingly bitter court battle between the world's richest person and the social media behemoth.
The two sides will go to trial on October 17 after Musk attempted to back out of his plan to acquire Twitter due to what he claims is a misrepresentation of bogus accounts on the service.
The San Francisco-based firm is attempting to compel Musk to complete the transaction and accuses him of sabotaging it since it no longer served his interests.
Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk accused Twitter of increasing up efforts to conceal the true number of its users as the market collapsed in the counterclaims made public on Thursday.
"As a long bull market was coming to a close, and the tide was going out, Twitter knew that providing the Musk Parties the information they were requesting would reveal that Twitter had been swimming naked," the counterclaims say.
According to Twitter, Musk has not "pleaded a shred of proof" for these "fact-free" assertions.
Musk also alleges that "Twitter's misrepresentations about spam and fraudulent accounts go considerably deeper than merely supplying wrong figures."
According to Musk, while "Twitter boasts 238 million'monetizable daily active users,' the users who actually see advertising" are around 65 million lower. Twitter insists that its SEC filings about monetizable daily active users were correct.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc, made a bid to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share in April, saying he believed in its potential as a global platform for free speech.
But as Twitter's stock price lagged behind his takeover attempt, he began to doubt that bot and spam accounts constituted less than 5% of users.
Musk attempted to pull out of the deal on July 8 without paying a $1 billion breakup fee, alleging Twitter's refusal to deliver information on bot and spam accounts. Four days later, Twitter sued him.
Twitter sent dozens of summons to banks, investors, and law firms that backed Musk's takeover bid earlier this week, while Musk issued subpoenas to Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan over their work.
According to legal experts, Twitter's queries indicated that the firm wanted to know why Musk turned against it, or whether he breached his commitment to get sufficient financing.
(Source:www.businesstoday.in)
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