New York:
Elon Musk Friday added a severance payment from Twitter to a whistleblower to the list of reasons he feels the right to waive his $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform.
A letter of resignation sent to Twitter accused the company of failing to inform it of a multimillion-dollar severance package it paid in June to outgoing security chief Peiter Zatko, who subsequently filed a whistleblower complaint criticizing Twitter’s security practices, according to a copy of the letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Musk’s lawyers argued that not asking for his consent before paying Zatko provides a new legal basis for breaking the merger agreement with Twitter that he signed in April.
Twitter disagreed.
“My friend seems to be claiming that Twitter should have told Musk for free that there was a disgruntled ex-employee who made several allegations that had been made inquiries and turned out to be unfounded,” Twitter attorney William Savitt said earlier this week.
“That makes no sense.”
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Musk, the world’s richest man, said in his original termination letter that he was canceling the deal because he was misled by Twitter about the number of bot accounts on his platform, allegations the company dismissed.
In a mixed ruling earlier this week, Kathaleen McCormick, the Chancellor of the Delaware District Court overseeing the case, said Musk could add whistleblower disclosures from Zatko that surfaced in August.
But she declined his request to push back the lawsuit, saying extending the lawsuit “would risk further damage to Twitter that is too great to justify”.
Musk has been embroiled in a bitter legal battle with Twitter since announcing in July that he was pulling the plug on the company’s acquisition after a complex, volatile, months-long courtship.
The five-day trial is expected to take place in Delaware court on October 17.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)