The richest man on the planet had signed a Twitter buy -back agreement of $ 44 billion before putting an end unilaterally, at the beginning of July, on the grounds that the company would have lied about the proportion of accounts automated and spam on its platform. Twitter had then attacked Mr. Musk in justice.
Le Monde with AFP
The showdown is engaged between the richest man on the planet and Twitter. The Multimillionaire Patron of Tesla, Elon Musk, accuses the social network of “fraud” as part of the trial on the agreement of $ 44 billion which he had signed to acquire the company but which he now seeks to break.
Elon Musk, in arguments filed Thursday August 4 before a state court of the state of Delaware, accuses Twitter of having “masked the truth” on the number of 238 million monetitable daily users claimed by the Social network, according to this 165-page judicial document accessed Friday by the France-Presse agency.
According to billionaire lawyers, there are about 65 million less and “the majority of advertisements” are only broadcast “with less than 16 million users, a fraction” of what Twitter claims. The complaint, which describes “the distorted representations” of the social network “sins”, says that “Twitter has frantically prevented information from circulating in a desperate attempt from preventing [Elon Musk] from discovering fraud”.
Elon Musk approached Twitter in April, then signed a buyout for 54.20 dollars per share. He ended it unilaterally at the beginning of July, on the grounds that the company based in San Francisco would have, according to him, lied on the proportion of automated accounts and spam on his platform.
In mid-July, Twitter had attacked Elon Musk in court before the Delaware Court of Chancery, a court specializing in business law, to force him to honor his acquisition commitment for $ 44 billion. Two weeks later, the richest man in the world had countered with a “confidential” complaint. The trial must open on October 17.
“Fauste the value of Twitter”
The official documents filed by the platform with the American stock market gendarme “contain many false material declarations and omissions which distort the value of Twitter and led Elon Musk to accept to buy the company at an inflated price” , assure the lawyers of the businessman in their arguments. Twitter’s strategy, they continue, consisted in “playing hide and seek” to prevent the buyer as long as possible from “discern the truth”.
Twitter replies that the businessman has precipitated negotiations and that the agreement has never mentioned the false accounts, and the lawyers of the social network denounce an “attempt to escape a contract that Musk finds More interesting since the stock market has dropped “.
Between the general decrease in the stock market in recent months, the drop in advertising revenues from social networks linked to the economic situation and public criticism of Elon Musk, the title of Twitter collapsed at around 32 dollars on 11 July.