Billionaire Elon Musk (pictured) posted a series of messages on Twitter appearing to mock the looming threat of court action by the social media company over a decision to abandon a $44 billion acquisition, as several reports stated a legal tit-for-tat was already underway.

Musk noted any court action by Twitter would force the company to disclose information regarding bot and spam accounts. The billionaire cited a failure to provide these details as the reason for backing out of the acquisition.


The posts were Musk’s first on Twitter since his lawyer claimed in a regulatory filing the company breached multiple provisions of an acquisition agreement signed in April.

Musk could face a $1 billion break-up fee, but for now it looks as though Twitter executives plan to see him in court.

Financial Times reported Twitter’s legal team accused the billionaire of being the one to break the agreement, asserting Musk had breached various obligations and so lost any right to call the deal off.

Musk had claimed Twitter has more bots and spam on its platform than it had publicly stated, and had failed to offer more details when he requested it.

In turn, Twitter argued it had offered access to a significant amount of internal user data to alleviate his concerns, but The Washington Post previously reported Musk’s team concluded the information was not verifiable.

When Musk’s team moved to drop the deal, Twitter chair Bret Taylor wrote the company was committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed, and was confident it would prevail in court.