Twitter Inc said on Monday payments paid to a whistleblower did not infringe any terms of its $44 billion takeover by Elon Musk, after the world’s richest man cited the move as another reason to cancel the transaction.
In a letter sent to Twitter on Friday, Musk’s attorneys claimed that Twitter had violated the terms of the merger agreement by not getting his permission before paying whistleblower Peiter Zatko and his attorneys $7.75 million. The merger agreement places limitations on when Twitter may make such payments.
Zatko, who was fired by Twitter in January as the company’s security head, charged the social media company last month with making false claims about the strength of its security plan and misrepresenting its defenses against hackers and spam accounts.
The whistleblower will meet the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on September 13 to address the accusations. Separately, Twitter will host a special meeting for shareholders to approve the deal on Tuesday.
Musk, who also serves as the CEO of Tesla Inc., a manufacturer of electric vehicles, has claimed that Twitter has misrepresented the incidence of spam or bot accounts on its platform and has attempted to end the partnership for that reason.
The first day of a trial in Delaware Chancery Court is set for October 17.
Musk’s legal counsel was unavailable for comment right away.
