The president of Twitter said on Friday that the company would take legal action to “enforce the agreement” to buyout, after Elon Musk announced earlier that the agreement would be terminated.
“Twitter’s Board of Directors is committed to completing the transaction at the price and on the terms agreed to with Mr. Musk,” Bret Taylor tweeted, adding that they were “confident” in their chance to prevail. courts.
Billionaire Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, had earlier indicated to Twitter that he was ending the agreement reached with the board of directors to buy the social network because of “false and misleading” information on the company.
In a letter published by the American stock market policeman, his lawyers assure that Twitter did not respect its commitments made in the agreement, by not giving all the information requested on the number of inauthentic accounts and spam.
Twitter has repeatedly said in recent weeks that the number of fake accounts on its platform is less than 5%. The multi-billionaire and his team believe that the network is lying, and that this affects the viability of his business, and therefore the value of the company.
For weeks, experts have wondered if Elon Musk was looking to withdraw his offer or renegotiate the price lower.
Both parties have pledged to pay severance pay of up to $1 billion in certain circumstances.
All losers
“This is a dire scenario for Twitter and its board, as the company will now have to face Musk in a lengthy legal battle to salvage the deal and/or recover at least $1 billion,” analyst Dan Ives said. .
In the letter, Elon Musk’s lawyers also discuss recent layoffs of Twitter employees and the hiring freeze.
They clearly “listed as many reasons as possible to avoid having to pay” the fine, commented analyst Carolina Milanesi for AFP.
On April 25, Elon Musk seemed to have won his bet, despite initial attempts by Twitter to push him away.
After being gradually, and discreetly, increased in the capital of the group, he made a definitive agreement with the CA of the group to buy the social network at a price of 54.20 dollars per share, or 44 billion dollars in all.
Since then, the title of Twitter has lost more than a quarter of its value. Tesla’s stock also tumbled nearly 25% over that time.
But even if the social network emerges weakened from the many adventures of recent months, “the worst would be that Twitter forces the acquisition to take place”, notes Carolina Milanesi.
“They would end up with an owner who doesn’t want the business, and is full of resentment.”