Elon Musk claims he was ‘hoodwinked’ into a deal to buy Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), a statement that the social media site said is “implausible and contrary to fact”.
Tesla’s chief executive made the claims in a countersuit filed last Friday, which was made public overnight, as the billionaire looks to back out of his US$44bn takeover.
“According to Musk, he — the billionaire founder of multiple companies, advised by Wall Street bankers and lawyers — was hoodwinked by Twitter into signing a $44 billion merger agreement,” Twitter said in the filing released on Thursday.
Twitter and Musk are set to showdown in court on October 17 after Musk sought to abandon the deal over the number of fake accounts on the site, a figure he believes is higher than reported.
Musk accused Twitter of actively concealing the true number of users in the counter-claim, stating that “Twitter knew that providing the Musk Parties the information they were requesting would reveal that Twitter had been swimming naked.”