Twitter shares fell in premarket trading Monday after Elon Musk said he was trying to pull off the company’s $44 billion takeovers.
Shares of the social media platform closed down 11%. Tesla, of which Musk is CEO, was down about 6.5%.
Musk’s lawyer told Twitter’s board of directors that he wanted to scrap the deal on Friday. The billionaire has struggled with the number of bots and fake accounts on Twitter and says the company is dishonest about how much activity on the service is genuine.
On the other hand, Twitter gave Musk the information he needed to evaluate his claim that spam accounts for only 5% of daily active users can be monetized, including so-called firehose, an unfiltered, real-time stream of daily tweets.
Twitter chairman Brett Taylor said the company would file a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court to enforce the settlement.
Musk responded Monday by posting a meme mocking Twitter management over the failed deal. This includes an image of Musk laughing and text claiming that the company is trying to “force” him to buy it in court.
A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on the meme.
According to lawyers, the two sides will likely face a lengthy legal battle. Musk could also face paying a $1 billion breakup fee to leave.
Musk is among the most popular Twitter users, with over 100 million followers. He has used social media sites for everything from corporate communications for his various businesses to criticizing the platform. Which he had previously wanted, for hurdles with its content rules and fake accounts.
Richard Windsor, the founder of research firm Radio Free Mobile. Said Musk’s willingness to “significantly renegotiate” the $54.20 price he was willing to pay for Twitter was most likely why he went out of business.
On Friday, Twitter shares were worth 32% less than Musk’s agreed deal price. Although Windsor is not a shareholder on Twitter, he says if he were, he would be selling now.
“There’s still a disconnect between fundamentals and stock prices,” Windsor told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Monday.