In a securities filing on Tuesday, lawyers for Musk said the allegations by Peiter Zatko, Twitter’s ex-head of security, including claims of “egregious deficiencies” in the platform’s defenses against hackers and privacy issues, meant that Twitter had breached the terms of the merger agreement.Shortly after, Twitter’s lawyers responded with their own filing, saying Musk’s case for termination of the deal is “invalid and wrongful.
Musk has been attempting for months to try and extract himself from the takeover of Twitter, initially claiming that the company’s user figures are inflated by millions of robot accounts. But Zatko’s claims, which emerged last week, have given Musk’s side new ammunition. Zatko, who was fired from Twitter earlier this year,about severe shortcomings in the social media company’s handling of users’ personal data, including running out-of-date software.
Twitter reiterated on Tuesday that Zatko’s complaint is “riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.” Twitter argues it hasn’t breached any of its obligations and it intends to enforce the deal and close the transaction “on the price and terms agreed upon.” Twitter shares were down less than 1% Tuesday morning in New York at $39.72, far below Musk’s offer price of $54.20.
Lawyers for both Musk and Twitter have subpoenaed Zatko, who said the social-media platform’s officials didn’t know or care to find out how many accounts were spam or robot accounts.
Not that often on twitter, must have reported 1000 spammer/scammers in 5 months!!