Elon Musk expanded his list of justifications for wanting to cancel his $44 billion deal to acquire the social media site on Friday. One of them is a severance payment made by Twitter to a whistleblower.
According to a copy of the letter submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company was accused of failing to inform him about a multi-million dollar severance payment made in June to departing security chief Peiter Zatko, who later lodged a whistleblower complaint denouncing Twitter’s security practices.
According to Musk’s legal team, the failure to obtain his permission before paying Zatko provides even another legal justification for ending the April merger deal he signed with Twitter. Twitter denied this.
“My friend seems to be arguing that Twitter should have gratuitously told Musk that there existed a disgruntled former employee who made various allegations that had been inquired upon and found to be without merit,” Twitter attorney William Savitt said earlier this week.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
The claims made by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, that he was terminating the deal because Twitter had deceived him about the number of bot accounts on its network have been refuted by the firm.
Musk might include August whistleblower revelations from Zatko, according to Kathaleen McCormick, chancellor of the Delaware court hearing the lawsuit, who issued a split decision earlier this week.
To read our blog on “Musk’s legal team has summoned a Twitter leaker,” click here.
