Elon Musk's X Corp files lawsuit against law firm to recoup fees from Twitter buyout
World's richest man and the owner of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, took legal action against law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. In the lawsuit, Elon Musk claimed it took advantage of the company while running up a $90 million bill. Twitter owner has demanded the recovery of the $90 million fee his company gave to the law firm for defeating his bid to walk away from his $44 billion buyout of the social media company.
The lawsuit was filed by Elon Musk's X Corp, which owns Twitter, on Wednesday in California Superior Court in San Francisco. In his case, Elon Musk accused the company of exploiting Twitter by accepting, in the final days before October 27, 2022, buyout closed, huge "success" fees doled out by departing Twitter executives who were grateful that Musk would be forced to close, reported Reuters. The $90 million payout by Elon Musk's company was regarded as “unconscionable", said Musk.
The law firm had asked for less than one-third of the sum for its few months of work on the Delaware lawsuit. "Wachtell arranged to effectively line its pockets with funds from the company cash register while the keys were being handed over" to Musk, the complaint said. Wachtell charged 'excess' fees as per an agreement made between one of the law firm's partners and Twitter's chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde.
With this legal suit, Musk wants to recoup that 'excess' fee charged in the Twitter takeover. The complaint also mentioned former Twitter director Martha Lane Fox's reaction, who was left in shock after knowing the amount charged by the law firm in the case. "O My Freaking God," the complain quoted Martha Lane Fox, when she got to know about the amount of money lawyers would be paid with.
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