The billionaire said on Friday that he had pulled out of an April deal to acquire the social media giant.
Twitter Inc sued Elon Musk for breaching a $44 billion agreement to buy the social networking platform and asked a Delaware court to order the world’s richest person to complete the merger for $54.20 each. Twitter shares, according to court filings.
“Musk clearly believes that he – unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law – is free to change his mind, sabotage the company, disrupt operations, destroy shareholder value and walked away,” the lawsuit filed Tuesday said.
On Friday, Musk said he was terminate the agreement because Twitter violated an agreement by not responding to requests for information regarding fake or spam accounts on the platform, which is fundamental to its business.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit accuses Musk of “a long list” of merger agreement violations that “have caused a nuisance to Twitter and its business.”
Shares on the social media platform fell to $34.06 on Tuesday from above $50 when the deal was accepted by Twitter’s board in late April.
The company has said for years in legal filings that it believes about 5% of accounts on the platform are fake. Musk also alleges that Twitter broke an acquisition agreement by firing two top managers and laying off a third of its talent acquisition team.
Twitter said it negotiated to remove language from the merger agreement that would make such behavior a violation of the usual course requirements.
