Twitter stiffed us on $2m bill, claim consultants in lawsuit
- Reference: 1674494705
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/01/23/twitter_consultant_lawsuit/
- Source link:
The company, hired to provide expert testimony and consulting services to Twitter's old management in litigation against Elon Musk in 2022, prior to the completion of the $44 billion deal, filed its claim on January 19 in the Suffolk County Superior Court, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
It alleges Twitter breached its contract with CRA after the consultancy itself did work on that famous breach of contract suit, back when "Old Twitter" sued the now Chief Twit for allegedly reneging on his agreement to buy the microblogging platform for $54.20 a share in cash in [1]July 2022 , although it feels much longer ago to many of us.
[2]
Musk [3]countersued in August, [4]claiming he'd been misled about the number of bots floating around, although by October (unbelievably, only three months ago) the deal was done at the original valuation, though not without some moaning from the billionaire about how much he'd [5]overpaid .
[6]
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CRA says it signed a contract with three different law firms in the Musk litigation, all of which signed "on behalf of Twitter."
Among other things, CRA claimed in its civil complaint that it sorted an expert rebuttal report to counter expected testimony from financing, solvency and valuation expert Yvette Austin Smith, who was to testify for the "Musk parties," according to the filing.
[8]
In addition to suing for breach of contract, CRA claims in its complaint, seen by The Register , that Twitter should pay "double or treble" damages under Chapter 93A, a Massachusetts law that looks at unfair business practices.
"The total amount of the Invoices which have been rendered to Twitter and remain unpaid are $2,189,001.83," it stated, alleging that Twitter had "breached the Contract by failing to pay all of the CRA invoices."
[9]Twitter tweaks third-party app rules to ban third-party apps
[10]As if Elon didn't have enough problems – Twitter sued over leaky servers
[11]Twitter 2.0 signal boosts Taliban 2.0 through Blue subscriptions
[12]Twitter starts auction to flip the bird, furniture, pizza ovens, gadgets galore
[13]Ex-Twitter Brits launch legal challenge against dismissal
[14]Twitter's Singapore landlord says avian network still a tenant, despite eviction reports
[15]Elon Musk's cost-cutting campaign at Twitter extended to not paying rent, claims landlord
The consultancy's complaint joins a host of civil claims against Twitter alleging breach of contracts signed prior to the takeover, including a December lawsuit filed in California by Imply Data Inc, a software dev [16]seeking more than $8 million claiming Twitter canceled its invoice for a quarterly payment after deciding not to renew a license agreement deal. Meanwhile, a [17]private jet provider sued Twitter for allegedly failing to pay the bill for two flights taken by former chief marketing officer Leslie Berland as Musk was preparing to close the $44 billion acquisition.
Twitter is being sued in England for [18]allegedly failing to pay the rent for its London office. This is happening while Musk is [19]facing a class-action lawsuit in San Francisco brought by Tesla investors over a pair of allegedly misleading tweets from the automaker boss.
There's also a breach of contract claim from [20]landlord Columbia Property Trust. CPT owns an office tower at 650 California Street in San Francisco, where Twitter rents the 30th floor (and where, on another, undisclosed floor, several of The Register 's SF bureau vultures sometimes perch). The property owner is claiming Twitter owes it more than $136,000.
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Elsewhere, the social media company is also facing off against lawsuits that claim it violated labor laws and that layoffs were conducted without enough notice, including a [22]British action claiming the way the American giant is going about the collective consultation redundancy process doesn't conform to UK law. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/13/twitter_sues_elon_musk/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y88RkFzJDC0LPx@bCYC5hgAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/31/musk_twitter_whistleblower/
[4] https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-933f52cf58fea145e71f1112563951d4
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/20/musk_overpaying_twitter/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y88RkFzJDC0LPx@bCYC5hgAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y88RkFzJDC0LPx@bCYC5hgAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y88RkFzJDC0LPx@bCYC5hgAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/21/twitter_third_party_apps/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/19/twitter_sued_data/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/17/twitter_blue_taliban/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/16/twitter_auction/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/13/twitter_uk_dismissal_challenge/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/13/twitter_singapore_hq/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/03/elon_musks_costcutting_campaign_at/
[16] https://unicourt.com/case/ca-sfc-imply-data-inc-vs-twitter-inc-et-al-700621
[17] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/66625375/1/private-jet-services-group-llc-v-twitter-inc/
[18] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/23/twitter-sued-crown-estate-unpaid-london-rent/
[19] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/elon-musk-returns-to-court-to-testify-in-tesla-tweet-trial
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/03/elon_musks_costcutting_campaign_at/
[21] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y88RkFzJDC0LPx@bCYC5hgAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/13/twitter_uk_dismissal_challenge/
[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: In the circumstances...
Knowing Musk, that's true. But in the real world, a company is responsible for its debts even of the ownership changes, unless they go insolvent. If Musk were to win in these cases, it would have a huge knock-on effect across the entirety of the business world. Want to renege on your debts? Just sell the company to your wife/husband/partner/child/whatever. Musk and Trump would love that, of course :-)
What does Musk hope to gain ?
He might be able to wiggle out of paying (part of) some of what he is being sued for but I would have thought that the lower payments would be dwarfed by the legal bills. We know that lawyers do not come cheap.
Then what is the reputational damage ? Or has he decided that he does not have any reputation worth trying to salvage ?
Re: What does Musk hope to gain ?
I wonder if he's just kicking a bunch of cans down the road because Twitter doesn't generate enough money to cover it's costs.
Well?
What did Twitter expect would happen when they fired Mary from Accounts?
So he really wants to stiff litigation experts?
I don't expect that to go well - surely they know better than most how to use the legal system to get their money.
If Bannon and Trump can do it... So can Musk
as in declare bankwuptcy to avoid paying your debts. I would not put it beyond him to do just that... you know to prove a point.
which is to make it clear that there is one rule for the mega-mega-rich and one for us plebs (i.e. those who don't have a billion in the bank)
Re: If Bannon and Trump can do it... So can Musk
The early stages of a planned bankruptcy involve running up as much debt as possible. In the UK, if it counts as trading while insolvent then Musk would be personally liable. Imminent bankruptcy can be spotted when workers do not receive paychecks. As far as I know, we are not there yet, but we are at the point where ex-employees are being promised 1 what they are owed in return for signing a promise never to say 2 anything bad about Musk for the rest of their lives. According to internet lawyers 3 Musk treats twitter as his personal property so creditors will be able to get their money back from Musk instead of trying to squeeze blood out of the bankrupt corpse of Twitter
1) Jam tomorrow!
2) Free speech!
3) Still marginally more credible than Musk!
Re: If Bannon and Trump can do it... So can Musk
I'm waiting for the TV News to have live reports of the Bailiffs going into Musk Towers and taking goods or simply impounding his precious private jet although he could probably buy a 747 with the loose change from his sofa.
The same goes for Trump. Send the bailiffs into Mar-al-largo and remove some of that 'tat' to settle the fines imposed on him last week for filing stupid lawsuits. I fully expect that he'd try to stiff the lawyers for the full amount.
Re: If Bannon and Trump can do it... So can Musk
No doubt Trump will be appealing that judgment so I doubt he'll be on the hook for paying it for a while until he's run out of appeals. Then he'll wait until the last minute before it must be paid, and only pay if failure to do so would mean he could be arrested as opposed to having more fines assessed he'd drag out in court.
Re: If Bannon and Trump can do it... So can Musk
The snag about a Chapter 11 bankruptcy is that it will hit the current owner hardest, so the ownership would functionally pass from Musk to those who lent him the money. There were about $13bn in loans to Twitter (not Musk) which, alongside the landlords, former employees, government entities levying fines etc. would be seen as creditors. Since the value of the biz is likely roughly a quarter of what Musk paid, the lenders would end up owning the company and Musk would... not.
Freedumb isn't free
Which part don't you understand? Free- Musk gets it for free, by loan or tax benefit. Dumb- It's always dumb to trust a megalomaniac.
In the circumstances...
It might have been wise to demand payment up-front, given the guy you're providing evidence against is going to be the one signing the cheques if you "win"...