Twitter has sued Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday in an attempt to force him to buy the social media firm, setting up a legal battle with the world’s richest man.
It comes after Mr Musk announced he was walking away from his proposed $44bn (£37bn) takeover of Twitter on Friday.
Musk claimed Twitter had refused to give him information about the number of fake and spam accounts on the platform.
Now Twitter has asked a Delaware court to order Musk to complete the merger at the agreed $54.20 per Twitter share.
“Musk refuses to honour his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” said Twitter in its lawsuit.
“Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”
Twitter told employees on Tuesday in a memo it had, “filed a motion for an expedited trial alongside the complaint, asking for the case to be heard in September, as it is critically important for this matter to be resolved quickly.”
The social network wants a four-day trial in September, while the deal has a closing deadline of October 24, 2022. If the deal still waits for regulatory approval on that date, both parties would have six months to finish it.
Musk previously told Twitter he was terminating the deal, to which the latter shot back the move was “invalid and wrongful”. Musk says there’s a discrepancy related to the true numbers of fake accounts on the site, but Twitter disagrees.
The filing of the Twitter lawsuit in Chancery court in Delaware was calculated as the latter has set precedent for ensuring companies do not walk away from deals.
