The richest man in the world has decided to fight back. Elon Musk, currently in litigation against Twitter for reneging on his commitment to acquire the social network, has just filed a lawsuit against Twitter in a Delaware court, according to a legal document.
This complaint filed in a 164-page document in a “confidential” manner is not yet accessible to the public, according to an opinion from the Delaware Court of Chancery, a court specializing in business law, in charge of the file.
It is, however, expected to be made public soon, with court rules requiring Elon Musk to submit a public version of it, once redacted of any trade secrets or other sensitive information it may contain. But according to the Wall Street Journal, one of Elon Musk’s demands relates to the allegation that Twitter lied about its number of redeemable users after accepting his offer to buy.
Escalation of legal battles
While the judge overseeing the lawsuit brought by Twitter has set the start of hostilities between the two parties on October 17, Elon Musk has decided to file his counter-complaint in the process. An event announcing an escalation of legal battles between the platform and the businessman.
Elon Musk had announced in April his intention to buy the social network for 44 billion dollars but had finally declared at the beginning of July that he was ending the agreement on the grounds that the San Francisco-based company had, according to him, lied about the proportion of automated and spam accounts on its platform.
Twitter had filed a complaint on July 12 in a court in Delaware (northeast) to force the richest man in the world to honor his buyout commitment. The social network, which claims less than 5% of its active users are inauthentic, is seeking to enforce the agreement or seek severance pay, estimated at $1 billion.
Elon Musk had pledged to offer $54.20 per Twitter share. But between the general decline in the stock market in recent months, the fall in advertising revenue which affects the social network and the criticism of the billionaire in the public square, the title of Twitter had quickly collapsed to fall to around 32 dollars on the 11 July, the day before his complaint against Elon Musk. It was trading at $41.61 on Friday.