Twitter lawsuit accuses Elon Musk of breach of contract

Twitter sued Elon Musk on Tuesday for violating the $44 billion deal he signed to buy the tech company, calling his exit strategy “a model of hypocrisy,” court documents showed.

The lawsuit, filed in the US state of Delaware, asks the court to order the billionaire to close his deal to buy Twitter, arguing that no monetary damages could repair the damage he caused.

“Musk’s conduct merely confirms that he intends to escape the binding contract he voluntarily signed and harm Twitter in the process,” the lawsuit reads.

“Twitter has suffered irreparable harm from the defendants’ violations and will continue to do so.”

Twitter shares edged higher in after-hours trading when the news broke.

Analysts say Musk’s attempted exit from the buyout leaves the company in a vulnerable state at a challenging moment.

After weeks of threats, Musk pulled the plug on the deal late last week, accusing Twitter of “misleading” statements about the number of fake accounts, according to a letter from his attorneys contained in a US securities file.

In his first public statements since the announcement, Musk took to Twitter over the weekend to troll the company after it said it would sue to enforce the deal.

“They said I couldn’t buy Twitter. Then they would not reveal any bot information. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose bot information in court,” he wrote in a tweet with pictures of Musk laughing with delight.

The termination of the acquisition agreement Musk signed in April sets the stage for a potentially protracted court battle with Twitter, which initially opposed a transaction with the unpredictable billionaire entrepreneur.

Twitter has defended its oversight of fake accounts and vowed to force Musk to complete the deal, which included a $1 billion breakup fee.

The social network says the number of fake accounts is less than five percent, a number questioned by Musk, who believes the percentage is much higher.

Musk’s non-normative behavior comes as little surprise to observers of the Tesla and SpaceX boss after years of pronouncements that flout or test convention and sometimes provoke a crackdown from regulators.