The Elon Musk and Twitter battle continues to unfold, but experts are wondering if the billionaire will have to pay up for the social-media platform.
Key details
The timeline of the battle between the billionaire entrepreneur and the social-media platform continues each day.
The biggest twist as of late was the whistleblower complaint from former Twitter security executive Peiter Zatko. He is scheduled to give a testimony deposition in court next week.
The complaint seemed to go hand in hand with Musk’s allegations of fraud from Twitter and looked as if Musk could get out of the deal as he had hoped. Now people aren’t so sure and are wondering if Musk will have to complete the $44-billion deal.
Why it’s news
For months, Elon Musk has attempted to back out of his $44-billion deal to buy Twitter due to the platform having too many fake accounts and the company giving misleading data about itself.
Considering Zatko is a security expert, if the information he is giving is correct this could be huge for Musk. Zatko is alleging that Twitter has many security faults and has not been truthful about other things within the company falling right in with Musk.
People are weary if Musk will win saying that Twitter has covered all of its bases and it will be hard for musk to prove fraud in court.
Even if proof of fraud is found, Boston College Law School professor Brian Quinn noted that he still sees Musk’s claims as invalid. Twitter’s 10K statement, Quinn explains, acknowledges that the company did have some level of concern about data and cybersecurity, reports Yahoo Finance.
“It seems to be large enough of an umbrella to capture Zatko’s whistleblower complaints.” Quinn says.
Backing up a bit
In April, Elon Musk announced that he held a 9.2% stake in Twitter, which made him the social-media company’s largest shareholder. Twitter’s stock price soared 25 percent after the announcement.
Later that month, the billionaire entrepreneur offered to buy all of Twitter at $54.20 per share—equaling about $44 billion. He said he originally invested in the platform because he believes it is failing in its potential to be the leading platform for free speech around the globe. In fact, he asked his 2 million followers if Twitter adhered to principles of free speech, and 70 percent said “no.”
Last month, Musk decided to back out of the deal, claiming there were too many fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has since sued Musk in Delaware Court of Chancery to complete the deal and requested the trial to take place in September. Musk, on the other hand, wanted to delay the trial until February 2023, stating that a case of this size takes time to prepare. Twitter was granted its wish of an expedited trial, with Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the presiding judge, setting a five-day trial for October.
Musk then countersued Twitter, stating his reason for the termination was due to Twitter not being upfront about the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Most recently, Elon Musk and his legal team have subpoenaed Twitter’s founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, to get him to release documents that provide accurate information on bots and spam accounts on the social-media platform and now these documents have come out from Zatko.
The trial is set for October, unless it can be settled before that date approaches.
