Elon Musk laughs off Twitter lawsuit with memes

Billionaire Elon Musk appears to be laughing off the reality of a lengthy, expansive legal battle with Twitter after nixing his $44 billion takeover agreement with the company.

Musk used the platform he is no longer interested in buying to mock Twitter’s leadership on Sunday.

The Tesla CEO tweeted a meme which included photos of himself “reacting” to the legal battle with increasing levels of amusement – and referenced the likelihood of more revelations of the number of spam bots within Twitter’s user base.

“They said I couldn’t buy Twitter, then they wouldn’t disclose bot info,” the meme says. “Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court, now they have to disclose bot info in court.”

Musk also shared a meme featuring a photo of actor Chuck Norris alongside a chessboard with the caption “Chuckmate,” though it’s unclear if that image was a reference to his looming battle with Twitter’s board.

The spam bot issue is central to Musk’s decision to back out of his $44 billion agreement with Twitter, adding another twist to a months-long drama regarding his potential involvement in the company’s future. Musk initially agreed to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share in late April.

In a filing last Friday, Musk’s attorneys accused Twitter of repeated failure to provide accurate info about the spam accounts. Twitter executives have asserted that fake accounts comprise less than 5% of the company’s user base – a statistic Musk and his team have flatly rejected.

“Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement,” the filing said.

Shortly after the filing surfaced, Twitter board chair Bret Taylor indicated the company intended to sue to enforce its original agreement with Musk.

“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,” Taylor tweeted.

Twitter has hired notable merger law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to handle its action against Musk, with a formal lawsuit expected to be filed early this week, Bloomberg reported.