Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Patrick Pleul | AFP | Getty Images
Elon Musk countersued Twitter on Friday, intensifying the conflict between the Tesla CEO and the social networking company he agreed to buy, but the lawsuit is not yet available to the public.
It wasn’t clear why Musk asked the court to keep details of his countersuit confidential when the billionaire, who is also the CEO of SpaceX, had been vocally critical of Twitter on social media and in press interviews in recent months.
On April 25, 2022, Twitter and Musk announced Musk would buy the social networking company and take it private for about $44 billion. Shortly after Musk struck the $44 billion deal, a market downturn led to a decline in tech stocks including both Tesla and Twitter.
Soon after they signed the deal, Musk accused Twitter of lying about the number of spam and bot accounts on its platform, and denying him access to information about their handling of these accounts. Musk formally said he wanted to terminate the deal earlier this month, and Twitter sued him in the Delaware Court of Chancery to force him to go through with the deal.
Musk’s legal team filed a confidential countersuit in a Delaware court on Friday, which means a copy was not available to the public immediately, but a version of it could be made public in the near future with sensitive details redacted.
The judge ruling on the case, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, on Thursday night issued an order that set a schedule including for a five-day trial to start on Oct. 17.