Twitter hires law firm to prepare to sue Elon Musk over scrapped deal

Twitter has hired a large New York-based law firm as it prepares to sue Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk after he scrapped a deal to purchase the social media company last week.

Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is representing Twitter after Musk on Friday dumped a deal to purchase the company for $44 billion.

Twitter will file its lawsuit in Delaware next week, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. Musk is being represented by the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

The Hill has reached out to Twitter as well as both law firms for comment.

Musk, who bought up a roughly nine percent stake in Twitter before moving to purchase the company earlier this year, abandoned the deal ostensibly because company officials failed to provide accurate and comprehensive information on “fake or spam” accounts.

After news of the deal was reported, Twitter shares fell five percent while Tesla shares climbed more than two percent. Twitter board chair Bret Taylor said the company would take Musk to court in order to force the completion of the sale.

Musk, with his more than 100 million followers, initially expressed excitement about championing free speech on the platform when news of his takeover bid first emerged, but he quickly pivoted to raising concern over how many bots are on the platform.

But his motives have been called into question by some experts who have pointed out the proliferation of spam accounts on Twitter have been public knowledge for years, well before his takeover bid.

Twitter also said it provided detailed information to Musk on the bots; removes around 1 million spam accounts a day; and insists that the number of active bot accounts on the platform remains below five percent.

In Delaware, the corporate home for many public companies, the Chancery Court often rules on mergers and other business disputes without a jury.