Elon Musk has filed a new Termination Letter following the devastating testimony of the so-called Twitter whistleblower.
Musk has been attempting to extricate himself from a $44 billion deal to buy the social network on the grounds that Twitter’s executive team had hidden the extent of its fake account problem. As suspected, last week’s excoriating 84-page complaint from former Twitter security chief Peiter Zatko has played right into the Tesla CEO’s hands.
Among other things, Zatko’s complaint to US congress claimed that Twitter’s executive lacked the resources and motivation to deal with the platform’s bot problem. This prompted Musk’s lawyers to file a new Termination Letter with the SEC yesterday, specifically citing the Zatko report.
According to Musk’s fresh Termination Letter, the allegations “demonstrate that Twitter has breached the following provisions of the Merger Agreement, thereby giving the Musk Parties the right to terminate the Merger Agreement pursuant to its terms as more fully described below”.
If Musk is unable to prove that Twitter violated the terms of their initial agreement, he will be liable to paying a $1 billion fine may even be forced to buy the company.
Whether the claims that have recently arisen from the whistleblower provide sufficient grounds for a termination of the agreement between Elon Musk and Twitter remains to be seen. Twitter, for its part, has refuted Zatko’s complaint.
“Mr. Zatko’s allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders,” said a Twitter spokesperson. “Security and privacy have long been company-wide priorities at Twitter and will continue to be.”
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.