Twitter sues Elon Musk, says he can’t “trash the company… and walk away”

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB)

Twitter filed its expected lawsuit against Elon Musk on Tuesday, demanding that he complete the $44 billion purchase of the social network.

"Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests," the lawsuit said. "Having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play, and having proposed and then signed a seller-friendly merger agreement, Musk apparently believes that he—unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law—is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away."

The suit described "a long list of material contractual breaches by Musk that have cast a pall over Twitter and its business" and asked the court to "compel consummation of the merger upon satisfaction of the few outstanding conditions." The lawsuit points out that in the purchase agreement, "Twitter negotiated for itself a robust right to demand specific performance of the agreement's terms that encompassed the right to compel defendants to close the deal, and ensured that Musk personally was bound by that provision (among others)."