Twitter Goes to Court: Musk’s Bid to Back Out (and Why Everyone’s Watching)
Picture this: Elon Musk, the man who’s sold you rockets, cars, and a kingdom of memes, suddenly decides he doesn’t want to buy Twitter. For the record, he’d just signed a US$44 billion deal to snap up the platform, but the legal world has turned this into a courtroom drama that might outshine any Hollywood blockbuster.
What Went Down
- June 21, 2024: Twitter files a lawsuit in Delaware, demanding Musk complete the merger at the originally agreed US$54.20 per share. They’re basically saying, “You can’t change your mind!”
- July 13, 2024: Musk pulls the trigger, citing a “material adverse event” — namely, Twitter’s failure to hand him data on fake and spam accounts. He claims this unfulfilled piece of “due diligence” turned the deal into a “destroyer of shareholder value.”
- Twitter’s shares plunged to US$34.06 after the lawsuit, compared to the $50+ they hovered at when the board approved the deal in April.
- On the other side of the argument, Twitter says Musk’s exit is a pretext, a flimsy excuse tied more to market fears than to any contractual breach.
Case Details – All the Drama, None of the Realities
Musk, who’s also the boss of Tesla, didn’t bother to respond to reporters when asked. He’s busy pulling out of a swirling merger, demanding that Twitter supply him with the data he never got.
Twitter counters that the contract’s language had been trimmed to say the executive departures weren’t a breach of “ordinary course.” Instead, they argue these departures were part of normal business tune‑ups.
Why This Matters (And Why Wall Street Is on High Alert)
Legal analysts are splitting: 1) Twitter might have the edge because Musk sidestepped the usual pre‑merger due diligence. 2) Tesla’s share price dipped 30 % since the big announcement. That hit Musk’s fortune hard, and now he’s turning to a boardroom battle as a way to keep the company running—whatever that’s worth.
In short, the treaty between two giants is broken, and the boardroom is now a courtroom. Stay tuned; this heads‑to‑seats saga might rattle the market and the internet for months.
