Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. TSLA, texted well into the night with Oracle Corporation ORCL co-founder Larry Ellison before putting on hold a $44 billion agreement to purchase Twitter Inc. TWTR.
According to a court filing by Twitter, Musk exchanged multiple text messages with Ellison on May 12 through 12: 20 a.m. on May 13, according to Insider.
The messages were reported to have been exchanged nearly four hours before Musk announced he was temporarily on hold of Twitter. Musk s lawyers have not provided the relevant text messages between Musk and Ellison after Twitter subpoenaed the Tesla CEO's messages on the deal, according to Insider.
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Why It Matters: In July, Twitter sued Musk to force a buyout, saying the entrepreneur had refused to honor his obligations.
Insider noted that Twitter's lawyers seem to be weaving a case around Musk's texts. They accused Musk of destruction of evidence, citing a screenshot of a conversation between Musk and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. After some time, those messages were set to be deleted.
Ellison was part of a group of 19 investors who committed $7.14 billion to the Twitter buyout, while Andreessen Horowitz backed Musk with $400 million.
Previously, Twitter's lawyers cited a private conversation Musk had with a banker at Morgan Stanley where he reasoned that it wouldn't make sense to buy the social network if we're heading into World War 3 with Russia.
Price Action: On Monday, Twitter shares were 0.25% higher in the regular session and 0.1% in the after-hours trading, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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