Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion has become a legal battle for both sides. The billionaire Musk is trying to escape from the deal, and Twitter is looking for a way to force him to complete the deal. Musk’s lawyers now want to rely on Pieter “Mudge” Zatko claims, as Twitter’s former security chief. Zatko already said Twitter has lied about its security measures. In response, Twitter said Zatko “was not in charge of spam at Twitter,” and he had a “huge ax to grind” with the company. However, Twitter lawyers have now put forward a new reason for Elon Musk’s withdrawal from the deal, which does not contradict his previous claim about the number of bots and fake accounts on the platform. World War 3 is seemingly the reason why Musk decided to back out of Twitter’s deal.
Twitter’s lawyers believe ‘world war 3’ was the reason for Elon Musk’s withdrawal from the deal
Twitter’s lawyers released a text messages that Musk sent to his banker at Morgan Stanley. The text was sent before Zatko could make his claims against Twitter. The text says, “Let’s slow down for just a few days … it won’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re headed into World War 3.” The company lawyers disclosed this message in a court hearing on Tuesday. “This is why Mr. Musk didn’t want to buy Twitter, this stuff about the bots, mDAU [monetizable daily active users] and Zatko is all pretext.” Elon Musk’s lawyers already examined Zatko’s claims as a way out of the deal. However, they’re now saying their client had “nothing to do with” Zatko’s whistleblower complaint. They also believe Twitter intentionally hid damaging information. While Twitter and Musk already agreed to appear in court in October, Musk’s lawyers are trying to postpone the date. At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, they said, “it’s not us causing this chaos or this delay.”
