Elon Musk has accused Twitter of fraud in a counterclaim over his aborted $44 billion deal for the social media company, which he said withheld information and misled his team about its user base. users, according to media reports.
According to The Washington Post, the countersuit filed by the billionaire Tesla CEO, filed Thursday, alleges that Twitter committed fraud, breach of contract and violations of the Texas Securities Act.
Musk’s counterclaims were filed confidentially last week and disclosed in a filing late Thursday in Delaware’s Court of Chancery, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Musk had offered to buy the company earlier this year, and then tried to back out of the deal, claiming the social platform was infested with a far greater number of “spam” and fake accounts than Twitter had disclosed. .
Twitter sued to force it to complete the purchase. Musk responded by filing his own counterclaim.
Musk’s lawyers argued that Twitter’s own disclosures revealed it has 65 million fewer “monetizable daily active users” to whom digital ads can be shown than the 238 million Twitter claims, the Post and Journal reported.
The filing also said that most of Twitter’s ads only appear to a portion of the company’s user base, the Post said.
In a surprise twist, Twitter filed its response denying Musk’s allegations before Musk’s own counterclaims emerged.
Twitter called Musk’s reasoning “a story, made up to try to escape a merger deal that Musk no longer found attractive.”
The case is scheduled to go to trial on October 17.
