A Twitter shareholder has filed a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of causing Twitter’s share price to fall in an attempt to give up his $44 billion purchase offer or find an excuse to negotiate a discount.
According to the lawsuit, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has tweeted and made statements aimed at casting doubt on the deal, which has rocked Twitter for weeks.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by William Heresniak, a Twitter shareholder from Virginia, aims to elevate the issue to class action status. In addition, a federal court in San Francisco is asking for the transaction to be approved and shareholders to be compensated.
Musk stated last week that his offer to buy Twitter would not continue unless he saw evidence of the number of fake accounts on the platform. This has led to increased uncertainty in the deal.
The lawsuit alleges that Musk’s tweet in which Twitter said the purchase transaction was “temporarily suspended” was contrary to the purchase agreement and that there was no such thing as a suspension in the agreement.
The lawsuit also stated that Musk negotiated the acquisition of Twitter in late April, without the necessary due diligence measures expected to be made in such large deals.
The lawsuit said the contract to be signed must only be approved by Twitter shareholders and regulators, and the deal must be finalized on October 24 this year.
The complaint said Musk began making statements, tweeting and behaving in this direction in order to create doubt about the deal and drastically reduce Twitter shares.
The complaining party suggested that Musk’s goal was to gain a right to pressure Twitter to buy Twitter much cheaper or withdraw from the deal without paying any penalties. In a statement, the complaining party said, “Musk’s market manipulation worked. Since the announcement of the offer to buy Twitter, Twitter has lost $ 8 billion in value.”
Twitter shares closed on Thursday with a slight rise of $39.52. This meant that the acquisition process could come true to Musk’s suspicions that he would complete the initial offer at $54.20 per share.
“Musk’s disregard for the law shows how a person can ignore laws and tax laws to build his wealth, albeit at the expense of other Americans,” the court filing said.
In a statement made by Twitter, it was stated that the registration documents of the regulatory parties pledged to complete the sale process without delay in the agreed price and terms.
