Tesla Inc TSLA chairman Elon Musk made more serious allegations Twitter Inc TWTRpotentially dragging out a legal battle between the two parties over the billionaire entrepreneur’s attempt to back out of a $44 billion deal for the social media company.
What happened: Musk amended his earlier countersuit against Twitter with allegations from the company’s former security chief-turned-whistleblower who recently testified before Congress, according to a court filing Thursday. Reuters reported.
He also claimed that Twitter concealed his breach of a 2011 agreement with the Federal Trade Commission in terms of user data, the report said.
“Needless to say, the latest revelations make it undeniably clear that the Musk parties have every right to withdraw from the merger agreement,” the amended filing reads, according to Reuters.
Why it matters: Twitter whistleblower Peter “Mudge” Zeitko On Wednesday said before the Senate that during his final week on Twitter that Federal Office of Investigations had informed the company about a Chinese government agent on its payroll.
Zeitko’s statement followed a similar claim he had previously made that raised concerns about covert foreign interference in the microblogging site.
analysts, however are shared on the impact Zeitko’s recent claims will have on next month’s court case between Musk and Twitter, after Twitter shareholders approved the Tesla boss’s deal to take the company private.
Musk has also asked Twitter’s former product chief to testify about spam accounts, which are central to his lawsuit. Bloomberg reported.
price action: Tesla shares closed nearly 0.4% higher at $303.75 on Thursday, while Twitter shares closed nearly 0.6% higher at $42.14 before falling 0.7% in extended trading.
