A judge recently ruled that Elon Musk can use allegations made by Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko as part of the arguments in his countersuit against the company. It turns out that Musk intends to use not only Zatko’s claims to win his case, but also the fact that the former Twitter executive received a deal to get out of the $44 billion takeover deal he made with the social network. . What washington post Musk’s lawyers reportedly sent a letter to Twittertelling the company that the $7.75 million severance payment it made to Zatko in June violated a provision in its sale agreement.
In the letter uploaded to the SEC’s website, Musk’s attorneys cited Section 6.1(e) of the merger agreement, which says that Twitter promised not to “grant or provide any severance or termination pay or benefit to any service provider.” services of the company other than the payment of severance pay”. amounts or benefits in the ordinary course of business consistent with past practice and subject to the execution and non-revocation of a release of claims in favor of the Company and its Subsidiaries”. Former employees are considered service providers of the company.
Musk and Twitter signed the purchase agreement in April, and it wasn’t until June that Zatko received his severance pay. The company did not seek Musk’s consent before making the payment or notifying him of the transaction, the lawyers said in the letter. Musk apparently only found out about the deal when Twitter included the information in his court filing on September 3. As such, Musk’s camp argues that the deal serves as an additional basis for terminating the parties’ purchase agreement. What The charge notes, it is now up to Twitter to prove that such a large payment to a former employee was not out of the ordinary. We’ve reached out to Twitter for a statement and will update this post when we have a response.
Also known as “Mudge,” Zatko accused the social network of having “extreme and egregious deficiencies” in security. He said in a complaint filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Twitter violated terms it had agreed to when it settled a privacy dispute with the FTC in 2011. The whistleblower also claimed he was unable to get a direct response from Twitter regarding the number. real number of bots on the website. If you recall, Musk previously accused Twitter of fraud for hiding the real number of bots on its platform, telling the court in a legal filing that 10 percent, not just 5 percent as the social network claims, of his daily active users viewing the ads are non-authentic accounts.
Twitter and Musk will face each other in court in a five-day trial scheduled to begin on October 17.
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