Twitter sued billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday over his abandoned $44 billion takeover offer.
Lawyers for Twitter told a Delaware judge that the world’s richest man failed to honour his agreement to pay $54.20 a share for the social-media platform.
Mr Musk abandoned the deal on Friday, saying it was partly because of the number of fake accounts among users.
Twitter chairman Bret Taylor said last week that the company planned to pursue legal action against Mr Musk, and in a letter released on Monday, its lawyers called the deal termination “invalid and wrongful".
The filing sets up what will be a closely watched court battle between the Tesla co-founder and Twitter, a communications tool the billionaire favours, but through which his posts have previously put him in legal trouble.
Mr Musk backed out of the deal to buy the platform on July 8, saying in a regulatory filing that the company has made “misleading representations” over the number of so-called spam bots on the service.
Twitter has not “complied with its contractual obligations” to provide information about how to assess how prevalent the bots are on the social medial service, Mr Musk said in a letter to Twitter that was included in the filing.
He said Twitter had failed to operate its normal course of business. The company instituted a hiring freeze, fired senior leaders and had other major departures.
“The company has not received parent’s consent for changes in the conduct of its business, including for the specific changes listed above,” Mr Musk said in the letter, calling it a “material breach” of the merger deal.
His deal with Twitter had included a provision that if it fell apart, the party breaking the agreement would pay a termination fee of $1bn under certain circumstances.
Legal experts have debated whether the conflict over spam bots is enough to allow Mr Musk to walk away from the deal.
But the merger agreement also includes a specific performance provision that allows Twitter to force Mr Musk to go ahead with the deal.
Twitter must prove it did not breach the buyout agreement terms and that he broke the deal by pulling out.
The company hired merger law heavyweight Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz to represent it in the fight.
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Slow loris biog
From: Lonely Loris is a Sunda slow loris, one of nine species of the animal native to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore
Status: Critically endangered, and listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list due to growing demand in the global exotic pet trade. It is one of the most popular primate species found at Indonesian pet markets
Likes: Sleeping, which they do for up to 18 hours a day. When they are awake, they like to eat fruit, insects, small birds and reptiles and some types of vegetation
Dislikes: Sunlight. Being a nocturnal animal, the slow loris wakes around sunset and is active throughout the night
Superpowers: His dangerous elbows. The slow loris’s doe eyes may make it look cute, but it is also deadly. The only known venomous primate, it hisses and clasps its paws and can produce a venom from its elbow that can cause anaphylactic shock and even death in humans
House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Westminster, London
- Camden, London
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Islington, London
- Kensington and Chelsea, London
- Highlands, Scotland
- Argyll and Bute, Scotland
- Fife, Scotland
- Tower Hamlets, London
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Why the Tourist Club?
Originally, The Club (which many people chose to call the “British Club”) was the only place where one could use the beach with changing rooms and a shower, and get refreshments.
In the early 1970s, the Government of Abu Dhabi wanted to give more people a place to get together on the beach, with some facilities for children. The place chosen was where the annual boat race was held, which Sheikh Zayed always attended and which brought crowds of locals and expatriates to the stretch of beach to the left of Le Méridien and the Marina.
It started with a round two-storey building, erected in about two weeks by Orient Contracting for Sheikh Zayed to use at one these races. Soon many facilities were planned and built, and members were invited to join.
Why it was called “Nadi Al Siyahi” is beyond me. But it is likely that one wanted to convey the idea that this was open to all comers. Because there was no danger of encountering alcohol on the premises, unlike at The Club, it was a place in particular for the many Arab expatriate civil servants to join. Initially the fees were very low and membership was offered free to many people, too.
Eventually there was a skating rink, bowling and many other amusements.
Frauke Heard-Bey is a historian and has lived in Abu Dhabi since 1968.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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