American billionaire Elon Musk said that Twitter paid $7 million in severance payments to a former official who owned some of its embarrassing secrets, a move that raised suspicion about the extent of the company’s problems, and gave him another reason to walk away from his $44 billion purchase of the platform.
According to a report published by “Business Times”, today, Saturday, “Musk is trying to end his acquisition of Twitter after claiming that the platform misled him and investors about the number of spam accounts.”
The report considered that “these are all excuses that Musk uses to withdraw from a deal he regrets.”
And Musk’s lawyers said, in a statement issued by them, on Friday, that “as part of the purchase deal, Twitter had to notify the buyer, before they paid $ 7.75 million, of an agreement that took place, on June 28, with Peter Zatko, the company’s former security chief,” explaining that they “They learned of Zatko’s deal on September 3, when Twitter filed papers in court.
Zatko is due to testify before a US Senate committee next week about his concerns about lax security, privacy issues, and the number of bots on the platform.
The two sides are preparing for the October trial, in order to force Musk to complete the deal.
Last Wednesday, Delaware Chancery Judge Kathleen St. Jude McCormick agreed to Musk’s request to add Zatko’s allegations to his counterclaim, but denied his attempt to postpone the trial.
This is the third time Musk has told Twitter officials that he is withdrawing his $54.20 per share offer for the platform due to takeover agreement violations.