On Friday, the CEO of Tesla Elon Musk added a severance payment that Twitter Inc. to a whistleblower to his list of justifications for reneging on his $44 billion purchase agreement for the social media network, reports say. He informed that he had yet another cause to withdraw from his purchase of the social media platform: a $7 million severance payment to a whistle-blower who expressed concerns about issues at the business.
In a filing on Friday, Musk’s attorneys claimed that, as required by the terms of the acquisition, Twitter had to inform the billionaire before spending $7.75 million on June 28 on a parting agreement with Peiter Zatko, the firm’s former security chief. The lawyers came to know of Zatko’s agreement on September 3, when the paperwork was filed in court.
Musk claims Twitter misled him and investors about the quantity of spam and bot accounts among its more than 230 million users and is now attempting to cancel his acquisition of the social media network. Twitter counterclaims that Musk’s bot worries are a ruse to pull back from the contract and that the richest man is supposedly experiencing buyer’s remorse.
Next week, Zatko will give testimony to a US Senate committee on his worries about the platform’s low security, privacy concerns, and the sheer quantity of bots. He is slated to give his testimony in the Twitter litigation.
The trial of Twitter’s case to compel Musk to complete the acquisition is set for October, and both parties are preparing. Delaware Chancery Court’s Judge Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick granted Musk’s request to include the Zatko accusation in his counterclaims. However, she has rejected the request for a postponement. The Delaware court is scheduled to hold the five-day trial starting on October 17.
This is the third time Musk has informed Twitter executives that he is pulling back his $54.20 per share offer for the social media network due to infringements on the buyout agreement governing the transactions.
