Elon Musk laughs off Twitter lawsuit threat in wake of $44bn pullout

Elon Musk broke his silence on Monday over his attempt to bail out on purchasing Twitter for $44bn, before the company hit back with a statement of its own, calling his attempted termination "invalid and wrongful".

Early on Monday, the world's richest man went on the social media platform he claims he is no longer trying to buy and fired off a series of tweets suggesting he is gearing up for a likely legal battle.

One tweet contained a four-picture frame meme of him laughing, next to sentences reading: "They said I couldn't buy Twitter. Then they wouldn't disclose bot info. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose bot info in court."

Another tweet was a picture of the actor Chuck Norris sitting at a chessboard with his chin resting atop his folded hands. Musk's own reply to his tweet read "Chuckmate".

The tweets, from Musk's verified account, served as his first comments on his legal team's Friday disclosure that he intends to nix his takeover of Twitter, which the network first resisted but then warmed up to.

Twitter announced in late April that it would sell to Musk, but on Friday, lawyers for Musk publicly filed notice that he wanted out of the agreement, arguing among other things that the platform had failed to provide promised information on fake and spam accounts - so-called bots.

Yet Musk is unlikely to walk away easily. On Monday, lawyers for the company denounced his attempt to back out, saying in a letter: "Twitter has breached none of its obligations under the agreement.

Musk appears destined for a lengthy fight with Twitter in court. Notably, Twitter's chairperson, Bret Taylor, said his company was ready to sue Musk in a Delaware state court to enforce the purchase deal it had struck. The agreement contained a provision that may compel Musk to go through with buying Twitter as long as he had the financing to do so, which the businessman indicated in May that he had.

Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Twitter had in fact gone ahead and assembled a team of attorneys to sue Musk.

Musk could also face a fine of $1bn if he pulls out of the deal, although he is trying to avoid the penalty by alleging that Twitter breached "multiple provisions" of its sale agreement.

His first public appearance after Friday's filing occurred when he delivered the closed-doors keynote address at Allen & Co's Sun Valley Conference on Saturday.

Reports from Bloomberg and Reuters indicated that Musk told the crowd of tech, media and finance moguls about his thoughts on colonizing Mars and boosting Earth's birthrates - but he avoided talking about his proposed withdrawal from buying Twitter.

A report from CNN late on Sunday said Musk indeed did talk about trying to terminate his agreement with Twitter, with executives of the company in attendance. But that report said Musk simply reiterated his complaints about bot accounts and echoed statements that his lawyers made in their notice Friday.

Musk's tweets started less than an hour after the CNN report.

The businessman's maneuvering has set off a firestorm of reactions, including from Donald Trump, who called Musk a "bullshit artist" and his deal to buy Twitter "rotten" while the former president stumped for Republican political candidates in Alaska over the weekend.