Elon Musk Countersues Twitter: 'I Like A Little Nonsense'

Billionaire Elon Musk is taking his legal drama with Twitter to the next level.

In April, the Tesla CEO signed a $44 billion dollar deal to buy the social media company; however, by mid-July, he was seeking to "terminate" the merger agreement because he was not satisfied with the information that Twitter provided him about the number of bot and spam accounts on the platform.

Twitter board chair Bret Taylor tweeted that they were going to pursue legal action against him, and Twitter followed through a few days later. However, on Friday, the SpaceX founder decided to file a countersuit against Twitter.

As CNBC reported, Elon Musk filed a countersuit against Twitter on Friday, July 29. However, the lawsuit is not available to the public. Musk has asked the court to keep the details of his countersuit confidential, although he did not disclose his reasons for doing so.

It's possible that another version of the document may make its way to the public in the future with certain information redacted; however, that remains to be seen.

Earlier this month, Deadline reported that Chief Judge Kathaleen McCormick had decided to hold the trial in October. Twitter had been asking for a four-day trial in September, citing concerns with the stock price of the company.

After Musk announced that he wanted to terminate the deal, shares were trading for around $36.50 per share the following Monday, far below the $54.20 that Musk originally agreed to pay.

Elon Musk and his legal team had been trying to push the trial back to February 2023, stating that there was not enough time to gather the required information to hold a trial this year. However, Judge McCormick agreed with Twitter's attorneys that pushing the trial back to next year could cause the social media company's shareholders irreparable harm.

Although Musk's lawyers said that a fall trial was an "infeasible" time frame, Judge McCormick stated, “In my view, the defendants underestimate the ability of the court.” On Thursday night, she issued an order to set the schedule for a five-day trial, starting on Monday, October 17. That being said, many legal analysts still speculate that Musk and Twitter will be able to come to a settlement outside of the courtroom.

Only one day after filing the countersuit, Musk was back on the social media platform that he now seems reticent to buy. "Interaction with almost all Twitter accounts seem to be much lower in recent weeks & days," he tweeted on Saturday morning. "Accurate?"

Podcast co-host Sam Kohl commented, "No I’m doing fine bro you just fell off."

"I get where you are going with this, my lord," another follower commented.

Another user pointed out "This irony asking on Twitter if usage of Twitter is down? Ask on another forum for better statistics for use in court?"

In a follow-up tweet, Musk tweeted, "Tesla + Twitter -> Twizzler."

Several fans might be joking that he might be trying to take over a candy factory next, with one user commenting, "The Hersheys company must be freaking out rn."

Another user didn't seem to see anything to joke about, tweeting, "Bro, do you realize you are currently embroiled in some pretty serious and expensive litigation?"

Shortly after, Musk followed up his Twizzler tweet, writing, "Some people are no nonsense, but, personally, I like a little nonsense."