Entrepreneur Elon Musk has accused Twitter of fraud in a countersuit over his botched deal to buy the social network for $44 billion, which he says failed to disclose information necessary to carry out the deal and misled his legal team about the true story. size of your user base.
The countersuit from the billionaire and CEO of Tesla alleges that Twitter committed fraud, breach of contract and violation of a securities law in Texas, where Musk lives.
The complaint was filed confidentially last week and unveiled late Thursday by the Delaware Court of Chancery.
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Musk offered to buy Twitter earlier this year, but then tried to back out, claiming the social network had a higher number of bots and fake accounts than the tech company had initially said.
Twitter sued him to force him to complete the buyout, but Musk responded by filing a counterclaim.
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Musk's lawyers argue in the countersuit that Twitter's "misrepresentations or omissions" distorted the value of the company and caused Musk to agree in April to buy it at an inflated price.
In addition, they allege that Twitter's own statements revealed that it has 65 million fewer "monetizable daily active users" who can be served digital ads than the 238 million that Twitter claims.
Court documents also point out that most Twitter ads are shown to only a portion of the company's user base.
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Musk's legal team also accuses Twitter of having made too many major changes in recent months without consulting him, including personnel decisions and allegedly flouting social media restrictions imposed by the government of India, which is the country's third-largest market. from Twitter.
Musk had pledged to make Twitter a haven for free speech, but also said it must comply with local laws where it operates.
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Twitter responded that the information provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is accurate and that the company "did not misrepresent anything," according to NBC News.
The claim that Musk was "tricked" into signing the deal is "as implausible and contrary to fact as it seems," he said, stressing that Musk makes excuses to escape the deal.
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The social network also took issue with Musk's claims of fake accounts, saying the offered analysis was based on "a generic web tool" that designated the billionaire's own Twitter account as a likely bot.
The Delaware court, which handles high-profile disputes between companies that are incorporated there, such as Twitter, will rule on the case starting October 17.
