Elon Musk’s silence over his attempt to bail out on purchasing Twitter for $44 billion is no more.
The world’s richest man went on the social media platform he claims he is no longer trying to buy and fired off a series of tweets suggesting he was gearing up for the legal battle his withdrawal from the sale was expected to spur.
One tweet contained a four-picture frame meme of him laughing, next to sentences reading: “They said I couldn’t buy Twitter. Then they wouldn’t disclose bot info. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose bot info in court.”
Another tweet was a picture of the actor Chuck Norris sitting at a chessboard with his chin resting atop his folding hands. A reply to that tweet read “Chuckmate” – a clear pun for “checkmate”.
The tweets, from Musk’s verified account, served as his first comments on his legal team’s Friday disclosure that he intends to nix his takeover of Twitter, which the network first resisted but then warmed up to.
Twitter announced in late April that it would sell to Musk, but on Friday, lawyers for Musk publicly filed notice that he wanted out of the agreement, arguing among other things that the platform had failed to provide promised information on fake and spam accounts – so-called bots.
According to UK-based The Guardian, the maneuver set off a firestorm of reactions, including from Donald Trump, who called Musk a “bullshit artist” and his deal to buy Twitter “rotten” while the former president stumped for Republican political candidates in Alaska over the weekend.
The move also seemingly leaves Musk destined for a lengthy fight with Twitter in court. Notably, Twitter’s chairperson, Bret Taylor, said his company was ready to sue Musk in a Delaware state court to enforce the purchase deal it had struck.
The agreement contained a provision that may compel Musk to go through with buying Twitter as long as he had the financing to do so, which the businessman indicated in May that he had.
Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Twitter had in fact gone ahead and assembled a team of attorneys to sue Musk.
Musk could also face a fine of $1 billion if he pulls out of the deal, although he is trying to avoid the penalty by alleging that Twitter breached “multiple provisions” of its sale agreement.
His first public appearance after Friday’s filing occurred when he delivered the closed-doors keynote address at Allen & Co’s Sun Valley Conference on Saturday.
Follow us on:
