What Next for Elon Musk as Twitter Vows Legal Action Over Terminated Deal

Twitter's chairman, Bret Taylor, said that the board planned to pursue legal action against Elon Musk to enforce the merger agreement.

(Image: The Quint)

The next chapter of Elon Musk's Twitter takeover bid could unfold in a Delaware court as the social media giant has vowed to take legal actions against the billionaire for terminating his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Saturday, 9 July.

Twitter's chairman, Bret Taylor, said that the board planned to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.

The Tesla co-founder is attempting to terminate the deal by accusing the tech company of making "false and misleading representations" about the prevalence of fake accounts on its platform.

Earlier in May, Twitter had claimed that its platform has less than 5 percent bots, a figure that Musk had insisted upon. According to The New York Times, Musk will have to prove in court that Twitter lied about the five percent figure in order to justify the termination of the deal, adding that it could be "a very high bar to meet legally."

According to Delaware court rules, the judge will order to go ahead with the merger if the objector fails to make a legitimate case for the walk away. Alternatively, Musk can pay a $1 billion breakup fee if he does not complete the transaction, according to the buyout deal.

However, a Reuters report stated that the legal battle usually ends up with the companies re-negotiating deals or the acquirer paying the target a settlement to walk away.

A case would soon be registered in Delaware and Twitter could seek an expedited case, because of the size of the deal, NYT reported.