Elon Musk filed lawsuits against Twitter on Friday as he defends against the tech company’s lawsuit demanding that he hold on to his $44 billion buyout deal.
Musk’s counterclaim was filed along with a legal defense against Twitter’s claim that the billionaire was contractually obligated to complete the deal he signed in April to buy Twitter, the Delaware Chancery Court said in a statement.
The 164-page file was filed as “confidential,” meaning the documents were not available to the public, the release said.
However, court rules require Musk to file a public version of the filing redacted with trade secrets or other sensitive information.
A judge has ordered a five-day trial into Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk, set to begin Oct. 17.
The Tesla CEO wooed the Twitter executive with an offer of $54.20 per share, but then announced in July that he was “terminating” their agreement amid allegations the company held him in relation to misled their list of fake and spam accounts.
Twitter, whose stock price closed at $41.61 on Friday, has stuck to its estimates of accounts being run by software “bots” rather than humans, arguing that Musk is making up excuses to get out of the contract .
The social media platform has urged shareholders to approve the deal and has scheduled a vote on the merger for September 13.
“We are committed to completing the merger at the price and terms agreed with Mr. Musk,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and CEO Bret Taylor said in a copy of a letter to investors.
Billions of dollars are at stake, as is the future of Twitter, which Musk says should allow any legal speech — an absolutist position that has raised fears the network could be used to incite violence.
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