Twitter says Musk’s third termination notice is invalid

On Friday, Elon Musk’s lawyers sent their third letter to Twitter for the termination of the $44 billion acquisition deal, accusing the social media company of breaching the terms by paying $7.75 million to its former security expert without Musk’s notice. Twitter denied the claims.

In the letter, Musk’s lawyers said that Twitter should have gotten his consent before making a payment to its former security expert Peiter Zatko, who recently filed a whistleblower complaint accusing the company of misleading regulators on its defences against cyber attacks and spam accounts. The lawyers said that under the terms of the merger agreement, Twitter is obligated to report such payments to Musk.

Twitter rejected the claims on Monday, saying: “As was the case with both your July 8, 2022 and August 29, 2022 purported notices of termination, the purported termination set forth in your September 9, 2022 letter is invalid and wrongful under the Agreement.”

“Twitter has breached none of its representations or obligations under the Agreement, and following the receipt of the approval of Twitter’s stockholders at its September 13, 2022 special meeting, all of the conditions precedent to the closing of the Merger will be satisfied,” the letter continues. 

Elon Musk sent his first letter to Twitter requesting the termination of the deal on July 8, claiming that it’s not being transparent about the social media platform’s spam and bot accounts problem. Soon after, Twitter sued Musk for attempting to walk away from the deal, and Musk countersued the company for misrepresenting user metrics. 

Musk sent his second letter on August 29 following Zatko’s whistleblower complaint, citing his accusations and subpoenaing him to testify. 

During last week’s hearing, the Delaware judge allowed Musk to amend his countersuit adding the whistleblower complaint, but his request to postpone the trial from October 17 to November was rejected.

Meanwhile, Zatko will discuss his allegations before the U.S. Senate Judiciary committee on Sept. 13.