Twitter Sues Elon Musk After He Tries Backing Out Of $44B Deal

Elon Musk has been sued by Twitter after he tried backing out of the $44 billion deal to buy the social media company.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery on Tuesday (July 12), comes days after the Tesla CEO said he was backing out of the deal, according to a filing with the SEC. Musk's lawyer alleged that Twitter is "in material breach of multiple provisions" of the agreement and made "false and misleading representations."

According to CNN, Twitter's legal team said Musk's attempt to back out of the deal is "invalid and wrongful" and demand him to follow through. Up next for Musk and the social media company is a long and heated legal battle to see whether or not Twitter can force Musk to become its owner. If not, Musk would agree to pay the $1 billion "breakup fee" set forth in the original agreement.

Musk is now "(refusing) to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests," Twitter said, according to CNBC. The social media company also says Musk acted in "bad faith" when he sought out to purchase Twitter and accused him of backing out since "the market started turning."

Twitter wrote the following in the suit:

"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. This repudiation follows a long list of material contractual breaches by Musk that have cast a pall over Twitter and its business."