Former President Donald Trump has weighed in after fellow billionaire Elon Musk’s sudden Friday announcement that he is pulling out of the deal to purchase social media platform Twitter.
Trump, who owns rival platform Truth Social, posted on his feed late Friday: “THE TWITTER DEAL IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE ‘TRUTH.’”
Trending Today
The former president’s ‘truth’ comes after Musk walked away from the deal on Friday after claiming that Twitter has refused to provide his acquisition team with accurate numbers of fake spam/bot accounts. Following Musk’s move, Twitter announced it was filing suit against the Tesla and SpaceX founder for breach.
“The chair of Twitter’s board, Bret Taylor, tweeted that the board plans to sue Elon Musk to complete the $44 billion merger he just rejected and that Twitter is ‘confident’ it will prevail,” the outlet tweeted.
The Associated Press noted:
The likely unraveling of the acquisition was just the latest twist in a saga between the world’s richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms, and it may portend a titanic legal battle ahead.
Twitter could have pushed for a $1 billion breakup fee that Musk agreed to pay under these circumstances. Instead, it looks ready to fight to complete the purchase, which the company’s board has approved and CEO Parag Agrawal has insisted he wants to consummate.
In a letter to Twitter’s board, Musk lawyer Mike Ringler complained that his client had for nearly two months sought data to judge the prevalence of “fake or spam” accounts on the social media platform.
“Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information,” the letter said.
For his part, Musk has also claimed that the information is key to Twitter’s business and financial models and performance which is why he requires it in order to complete the deal.
In response, Taylor tweeted that the board is “committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon” with Musk and “plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”
The Delaware trial court often handles business disputes among the several corporations that are incorporated within the state, which includes Twitter.
“At issue — in addition to the percentage of Twitter users that may or may not be fake/’bot” accounts’ — may be the fact that Twitter’s market value has declined considerably since Musk first brokered the deal,” The Daily Wire added. “Individual shares when the bargain was first struck were $54.20, and at market close on Friday they were valued at $36.81.
Musk announced late on Friday that his advisers on Friday sent a letter to Twitter formally notifying the social company that he is terminating the merger agreement.
“For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform,” Musk’s team writes. “Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information.”
Earlier Friday, a report noted that Musk‘s $44 billion bid to purchase Twitter was in “serious jeopardy.”
The report noted that Musk was reviewing his options after his team accused Twitter of not disclosing the information regarding spam and bot accounts.
“Musk’s deal to buy Twitter is in serious jeopardy,” the Washington Post reported, saying Musk’s team has stopped engaging in discussions with investors about the funding because they believe the spam figures provided by the company are not verifiable.
Musk’s team is poised to take “potentially drastic action,” the report said.
Twitter announced on Thursday, meanwhile, that the company had cut roughly 30 percent of its talent acquisition team amid the potential Musk takeover.
Last month, Twitter’s board “unanimously recommended” that its shareholders vote to approve Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.
The board of directors unanimously recommended that its shareholders take the deal that Musk offered.
“Twitter stands to make money if the deal goes forward as planned — but Musk may see an opportunity to either get out of the deal altogether or to renegotiate and buy it at a lower price,” The Daily Wire added.
