Elon Musk cites whistleblower as new reason to exit Twitter deal

yeah it's created *** whole lot of uncertainty for the company and you see them arguing that in the lawsuit where where um Elon musk's tweets, it says I've been disparaging the company. All of the uncertainty about the deal um has made it hard to, to make big decisions about who to hire and whether to hire they off people um and sort of the future business direction of the company. There's *** lot of legal experts to they think that the Delaware court is sensitive to the question of of of somebody just wanting to get out of *** deal for because of buyer's remorse. Like there has to be *** really good reason why they would back out of an agreement they made with the company they're trying to buy. Um And so if twitter can really focus on that argument, it seems like it has *** pretty good case. On the other hand, Elon musk seems to think he has *** pretty good case showing why the problem with bots is not something that twitter has been transparent enough about. Twitter wanted this to get done in september uh Elon musk's team said maybe february would be better. Uh and the judge pretty much sided with Twitter and said this really needed to be expedited but she set *** trial date for October so one possible outcome is Elon Musk could have to pay *** billion dollars to make this go away which is *** lot less than $44 billion dollars which is what he agreed to pay to buy the company. Um The other extreme is um the judge could potentially force um Elon Musk to go through with the entire $44 billion but there's *** lot of possibilities in between that they could Twitter could make an argument that there have been some damages because of what's happened and and they might seek *** higher amount that's higher than just the $1 billion dollar breakup fee. Um Or they could end up settling um If, if it seems like that's going to happen and maybe they decide they don't want to go through with the with the whole trial.

Video above: Twitter-Musk dispute heading for October trialElon Musk and Twitter lobbed salvos at each other Tuesday in the latest round of legal filings over the billionaire Tesla CEO's aborted plan to buy the social media platform.Musk filed more paperwork to terminate his agreement to buy Twitter, this time based on information in a whistleblower complaint filed by Twitter’s former head of security. Twitter fired back by saying his attempt to back out of the deal is “invalid and wrongful.”In an SEC filing, Musk said his legal team notified Twitter of “additional bases” for ending the deal on top of the ones given in the original termination notice issued in July.In a letter to Twitter Inc., which was included in the filing, Musk's advisors cited the whistleblower report by former executive Peiter Zatko — also known by his hacker handle “Mudge."Video below: Elon Musk says Twitter deal off unless company can prove less than 5% of users are fakeZatko, who served as Twitter’s head of security until he was fired early this year, alleged in his complaint to U.S. officials that the company misled regulators about its poor cybersecurity defenses and its negligence in attempting to root out fake accounts that spread disinformationThe letter, addressed to Twitter's Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, said Zatko's allegations provide extra reasons to end the deal if the July termination notice “is determined to be invalid for any reason.”Billionaire Musk has spent months alleging that the company he agreed to acquire undercounted its fake and spam accounts, which means he doesn't have to go through with the $44 billion deal. Musk's decision to back out of the transaction sets the stage for a high-stakes legal battle in October.In a separate SEC filing, Twitter responded to what it called Musk's latest “purported termination,” saying it's “based solely on statements made by a third party that, as Twitter has previously stated, are riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lack important context."The company vowed to go through with the sale at the price agreed with Musk.

Video above: Twitter-Musk dispute heading for October trial

Elon Musk and Twitter lobbed salvos at each other Tuesday in the latest round of legal filings over the billionaire Tesla CEO's aborted plan to buy the social media platform.

Musk filed more paperwork to terminate his agreement to buy Twitter, this time based on information in a whistleblower complaint filed by Twitter’s former head of security. Twitter fired back by saying his attempt to back out of the deal is “invalid and wrongful.”

In an SEC filing, Musk said his legal team notified Twitter of “additional bases” for ending the deal on top of the ones given in the original termination notice issued in July.

In a letter to Twitter Inc., which was included in the filing, Musk's advisors cited the whistleblower report by former executive Peiter Zatko — also known by his hacker handle “Mudge."

Video below: Elon Musk says Twitter deal off unless company can prove less than 5% of users are fake

Zatko, who served as Twitter’s head of security until he was fired early this year, alleged in his complaint to U.S. officials that the company misled regulators about its poor cybersecurity defenses and its negligence in attempting to root out fake accounts that spread disinformation

The letter, addressed to Twitter's Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, said Zatko's allegations provide extra reasons to end the deal if the July termination notice “is determined to be invalid for any reason.”

Billionaire Musk has spent months alleging that the company he agreed to acquire undercounted its fake and spam accounts, which means he doesn't have to go through with the $44 billion deal. Musk's decision to back out of the transaction sets the stage for a high-stakes legal battle in October.

In a separate SEC filing, Twitter responded to what it called Musk's latest “purported termination,” saying it's “based solely on statements made by a third party that, as Twitter has previously stated, are riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lack important context."

The company vowed to go through with the sale at the price agreed with Musk.