Elon Musk’s lawyers believe they’ve found another excuse for the $44 billion Twitter deal to be canceled—and it doesn’t have anything to do with the number of bots on the platform.
The Verge reports(Opens in a new window) that a letter from Musk’s lawyers was disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Sept. 9. In the letter, Musk’s lawyers say Twitter violated the merger agreement when it reached a $7 million settlement with Peiter “Mudge” Zatko in June.
Zatko was hired by Jack Dorsey in 2020; he was fired by Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal in January. The Wall Street Journal reports(Opens in a new window) that the settlement was “related to Mr. Zatko’s lost compensation and followed monthslong mediation over tens of millions of dollars in potential pay.”
The settlement was also “completed days before [Zatko] filed his whistleblower complaint in July,” according to the Journal, referring to the complaint about Twitter’s security practices Zatko filed with Congress, the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and other agencies.
This isn’t the first time Musk’s lawyers have turned to Zatko for an excuse to walk away from the Twitter acquisition. They subpoenaed him earlier this month because his whistleblower complaint included allegations that Twitter has misrepresented the number of bots on its platform.
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Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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