Twitter says Musk’s request to terminate the deal is invalid

Twitter said Monday in a letter that Elon Musk’s bid to terminate his proposed $44 billion acquisition of the social media company is “invalid and wrongful.”

The letter, addressed to Musk’s lawyers, followed the Tesla CEO’s declaration on Friday that he plans to scrap the deal over allegations that Twitter undercounts the number of spam accounts on its service, among other reasons.

Musk’s attorneys claimed in Friday’s letter that Twitter breached its obligations related to the acquisition by allegedly failing to provide Musk with the information necessary to calculate the number of spam accounts on the service.

However, Twitter attorney William Savitt of the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz wrote in Monday’s letter that “Twitter has breached none of its obligations under the Agreement.”

Savitt said Twitter the agreement remains in effect.

“As it has done, Twitter will continue to provide information reasonably requested by Mr. Musk under the Agreement and to diligently take all measures required to close the transaction,” he wrote.

Savitt added that “Twitter reserves all contractual, legal, and other rights, including its right to specifically enforce the Musk Parties’ obligations under the Agreement.”

Attorneys advising Musk on this deal and related matters did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Twitter representative declined to comment beyond the filing.

Twitter shares plunged 11% on Monday to $32.65. They’re now trading 40% below the price of $54.20 that Musk agreed to pay in April, and have dropped about 33% since the deal was announced.