Musk confidentially countersues Twitter over nixed acquisition bid: reports

(The Hill) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk confidentiality filed a countersuit against Twitter, after the company sued him for terminating a deal to buy the social media platform for $44 billion earlier this month, according to multiple news reports.

The Friday countersuit was not made publicly available. A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment to The Hill on the development.

Sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal Musk counterclaims that the number of monetizable daily active users was changed by Twitter before the deal was expected to go through.

People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the allegation that the number of monetizable daily active users was changed by Twitter after the deal was agreed upon. In addition, the Journal reported Musk claimed that Twitter did not respond when the SpaceX CEO’s team made inquiries on spam number data were not sufficiently answered by the social media company, according to the Journal.

Musk’s counsel argued that Twitter violated their agreement on several counts, including that: the social media company had fired two executives and therefore went against their agreement; Twitter did not share adequate information regarding bots on Twitter’s platform; and that they have made incorrect statements regarding bots on their site.

Days after Musk terminated the deal, the social media company filed a lawsuit against the billionaire.

“These claims are pretexts and lack any merit,” Twitter’s lawsuit claimed. “Musk, by contrast, has been acting against this deal since the market started turning, and has breached the merger agreement repeatedly in the process.”

The five day trial between the two will start beginning Oct. 17.