Elon Musk fights back

Billionaire Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk filed a countersuit on Friday against social media company Twitter, which he had planned to acquire but later changed his mind.

Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter for around $44 billion at $54.20 per share in April, but in early July, said he was abandoning the takeover, accusing Twitter of breaching their agreement by “resisting and thwarting” his right to information about the number of fake accounts on the platform.

In response, Twitter, which was initially averse to the takeover, sued Musk, saying his fake account claims were a distraction and demanding that he go forward with the deal he had agreed to.

Mere hours before Musk filed his suit, the Delaware judge who is deciding the case, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, ordered a five-day trial beginning on October 17 to determine if Musk can abandon the deal if the sides cannot settle before then.

Musk’s 164-page suit is not publicly available, but under court rules, a redacted version may be published in the near future.

Twitter is scheduled to hold a shareholder meeting to vote on the acquisition on September 13.

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