Elon Musk reportedly is planning to file a counter-lawsuit against Twitter in an attempt to wiggle his way out of having to buy the social media company for $44 billion.
Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk last week in an attempt to force the entrepreneur to finalize the purchase that he agreed to back in April.
“Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” the company said in the lawsuit. “Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”
Musk decided that he wanted to terminate the deal because he claims that the company was not disclosing accurate information about how many spam accounts are on the platform.
The New York Post reported late Monday afternoon that Musk’s legal team is asking a Delaware Court of Chancery judge to grant them more time to gather information about the number of spam bots on the platform.
“The core dispute over false and spam accounts is fundamental to Twitter’s value,” Musk’s lawyers wrote in a filing responding to Twitter’s lawsuit. “It is also extremely fact and expert intensive, requiring substantial time for discovery.”
Robert T. Miller, a corporate and finance law professor at The University of Iowa, told the Post that Musk filing a countersuit makes sense because if he did not do that it would mean that “he’s surrendering.”
Miller said that the court could end up forcing Musk to buy the company and that if he were to refuse signing the paperwork required to bring the sale to a close that the state has the power to appoint a “special master” to sign the document on his behalf.
This report has been updated to include additional information.