The trial between Elon Musk and Twitter is just over a month away from starting, but the CEO of Tesla insists on leaving the purchase agreement and this time he presented a new letter. In it, he seeks to rescind the acquisition of the social network for 44,000 million dollars.
Musk’s legal team cited Twitter’s multimillion-dollar severance payment to former security chief and whistleblower Peiter Zatko as a violation of the merger agreement and a reason to end the deal. The letter, dated September 9, was sent to Twitter’s chief legal officer, Vijaya Gadde, and was included in a filing Twitter made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Twitter responded to Musk on Monday saying: “As was the case with the alleged termination notices of July 8, 2022 and August 29, 2022, the alleged termination set forth in your letter of September 9, 2022 is invalid and lawful under the agreement…in addition, the company has not breached any of its representations or obligations under the deal,” the social network said.
Last month, Zatko made headlines by accusing Twitter of misleading investors about the number of bots on the platform. This prompted Musk to speak out about the allegations, removing them in another letter and inviting Zatko to testify.
Musk first tried to circumvent the deal in July, saying that Twitter misled him about the number of bots on its platform and that the company would not give him access to the information he needs to make his own decisions.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter had agreed to pay Zatko approximately $7 million before he left the company, in connection with losing compensation after he and the company negotiated over the payment for months.
According to the US media, the agreement is not particularly strange, given that Zatko was an executive who left the company, but it seems that Musk does not agree.
