Twitter Hires A-List Legal Team For Pending Lawsuit Against Elon Musk

Twitter Inc TWTR and Tesla Inc’s TSLA Elon Musk are preparing to enter litigation, which Kevin O’Leary says could take years to complete.

“Anyone who thinks this is [a] one-year litigation, forget it. This is seven years of litigation,” said O’Leary while saying Twitter stock was born in hell.

So, what happened now? Musk is attempting to terminate the previously agreed to $44 billion purchase deal, based on the claim that the company made false and misleading representations to Musk surrounding multiple data requests, despite Twitter saying it gave Musk its full “firehose” of data.

Related: Elon Musk Wants Out Of Twitter Deal Due To Lack Of Information: $44B Buyout Off The Table

Twitter is fighting to ensure Musk completes the transaction at the previously agreed to $44 billion, or $54.20 per share.

“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,” Twitter chairman Bret Taylor wrote in a tweet.

Also read: Exclusive: Musk's Material Adverse Effect Not 'An Option For Him Walking Away': Merger Expert Tells Benzinga What's Next

According to Bloomberg, The social platform has hired the A-list merger law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz LLP — and Musk has retained Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, the same firm that is currently representing him in an ongoing shareholder lawsuit over his failed attempt to take Tesla private at $420 per share in 2018.

The microblogging firm aims to file the suit early this week.

“This is the worst managed social media company, ever,” said O’Leary, “It has had a rotating door full of CEO’s — it issued billions of dollars worth of options to employees that added no value, it has a board that has members that don’t even have Twitter accounts.” 

Price action: Twitter shares slid 4.83% to $36.81 during Friday’s session, and fell an additional $4.81% to $35.04 in after hours trading, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Created with an image from Daniel Oberhaus via Flickr