In Elon Musk‘s typical cheeky fashion, the Tesla CEO commented on his decision to abandon his offer to buy Twitter by tweeting a series of memes to the very social media platform he’s feuding with.
On Monday, Musk, 51, shared a meme after reports were released that Twitter hired a team of lawyers to sue him for attempting to drop his US$44-billion purchase of the company.
The meme shared by Musk, a series of four photos with accompanying text, showed the billionaire laughing progressively harder at each statement. The post reads: “They said I couldn’t buy Twitter; Then they wouldn’t disclose bot info; Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court; Now they have to disclose bot info in court.”
The tweet from Musk, who hadn’t posted to the site since dropping his Twitter deal last week, quickly gained attention. As of this writing, the tweet has over 750,000 likes and hundreds of positive replies.
Shortly after posting, Musk tweeted another meme, an image of Chuck Norris playing chess. He replied to the tweet, writing, “Chuckmate.”
Musk, the richest man in the world, agreed to buy Twitter in April. When he removed his bid, Musk claimed Twitter had breached multiple provisions of the merger agreement.
In a filing, Musk’s lawyers said Twitter had failed or refused to respond to multiple requests for information on fake or spam accounts on the platform, which is fundamental to the company’s business performance.
“Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement,” the filing said.
Musk has previously said he wants Twitter to prove that fewer than five per cent of its daily active users are automated spam accounts.
In May, Musk said he is “worried that Twitter has a disincentive to reduce spam, as it reduces perceived daily users.”
He claimed Twitter had refused to explain how it calculated the five per cent figure.
— With files from Reuters