Twitter sues Binance – The Cryptonomist

The legal battle between Twitter and Elon Musk over the social media company’s failed acquisition deal is getting increasingly heated, and the social media company has now sued Binance.

Twitter sues Binance and other companies involved in the acquisition

Twitter‘s lawyers involved in the lawsuit filed against Elon Musk over his failed $44 billion acquisition are set to subpoena dozens of companies that were in some way involved in the purchase proposal made by Musk to acquire the social media company.

The companies named include cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Factorial Funds, Benefit Street, Bandera Partners, Founders Fund Growth II Management, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. Twitter’s attorneys want to know the details of the conversations it had with Elon Musk in the tense days when he allegedly decided to back out of the $44 billion purchase of the social media company. 

In response, Musk’s lawyers have decided to subpoena Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan as witnesses, seeking clarification on the advice they offered Twitter in the sale of the social.

For his part, Elon Musk continues to argue that Twitter did not provide the necessary documents required to have an account of how many fake profiles exist within the social network. Twitter’s response, anticipated via the social network on 8 July by its CEO Bret Taylor, consisted of taking Tesla’s billionaire owner to court to force him to fulfill his commitments.

The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

— Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022

According to Musk, Twitter’s public statements about the prevalence of bots are misleading and he recently officially requested that they be made public by a judge so that they can be proven to exceed the estimate of less than 5% of mDAUs (monetizable Daily Active Users).

The data don’t match and Elon Musk tries to kill the deal

Twitter does not deny that this estimate may be wrong, but at the same time considers this fact to be a mere pretext to be able to withdraw the submitted purchase offer.

In a separate subpoena, directed at companies that had some part in this deal, Twitter asked these companies to turn over any documents and communications related to Musk’s tweet of 17 May, citing “some possibility” that Twitter bots and/or the percentage of fake or spam accounts “could exceed 90%” of daily active users. 

Twitter claims that >95% of daily active users are real, unique humans. Does anyone have that experience?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2022

Twitter’s lawyers claim that nowhere in the agreement was the bot data clause present, while Musk’s lawyers say they are necessary to:

“facilitate Musk’s financing and financial planning for the transaction and to engage in transition planning for the business […]”.

The trial, to be held in Delaware court, is scheduled to begin on 17 October, but given the premise it is sure to be a very tough battle between the two litigants over the next few months, and there will certainly be no shortage of surprises.