Elon Musk Monday mocked Twitter Inc’s threat to sue him after its decision to cancel the $44 billion acquisition deal.
Monday’s series of tweets was the Tesla Inc chief’s first public response since he made public his intention to drop the offer Friday after Twitter violated multiple provisions of the merger agreement.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2022
“Twitter’s board of directors must consider the potential harm to its employees and shareholders as a result of any additional internal data that comes to light in lawsuits,” said Benchmark analyst Mark Zgutowicz.
Twitter shares fell about 5% to $34.85 in premarket trading Monday. The stock closed Friday at $36.81, a 32% discount to Musk’s $54.20 offer, as it faces a double blow from a collapse in the broader stock market and investor skepticism about the deal.
Twitter plans to sue Musk as early as this week and force him to complete the acquisition, people familiar with the case told Reuters.
Legal experts say the 16-year-old social media company has a strong lawsuit against Musk, but could opt for a renegotiation or settlement rather than a lengthy lawsuit.
“We believe Elon Musk’s intentions to end the merger are based more on the recent market sell-off than on Twitter’s ‘failure’ to comply with its requests,” Jefferies analyst Brent Thill wrote in a statement. note.
“If there’s no deal, we wouldn’t be surprised if the stock bottoms at $23.5.”
Under the contract, Musk will have to pay Twitter a $1 billion break-up fee if he cannot complete the deal for reasons such as the loss of acquisition funding or regulators blocking the deal. However, the fee would not apply if Musk ends the deal himself.