Embattled Twitter To Pay Whistleblower $7million In June Settlement

 

In another allegations involving Twitter Inc, the embattled social media app has agreed in June to pay about $7 million to the whistleblower,  Peiter “Mudge” Zatko whose allegations will be part of Elon Musk’s case.

The whistleblower, who was fired by Twitter in January and was the company’s security head, last month accused the Twitter of falsely claiming it had a solid security plan and making misleading statements about its defenses against hackers and spam accounts.

Zatko shall be meeting the U.S. Senate Judiciary committee on Sept. 13 to discuss the allegations.

The settlement was completed days before Zatko filed his whistleblower complaint in July, according to reports.

As part of the settlement, Zatko agreed to a nondisclosure agreement that forbids him from speaking publicly about his time at Twitter or disparaging the company.

Reportedly, the confidential June settlement was related to Zatko’s lost compensation and followed monthslong mediation over tens of millions of dollars in potential pay.

Prime Business Africa recalls, Musk is engaged in a head-on legal battle with Twitter over his offer to buy the company for $44 billion after he changed course to drop the deal saying the social media firm had misled him about the number of bots and fake accounts on the site.

After much hype about buying Twitter, Elon Musk now wants to scrap the deal but experts warn it’s not that simple to walk away.

Following the news, twitter said it plans to sue.

Elon Musk who is the CEO of Tesla and Space X initiated the deal to buy Twitter back in April.

The spam accounts are not the only reason Musk might try to wriggle out of the deal. Twitter’s share price has fallen dramatically since his takeover bid in April, leading to the impression that he is overpaying. And Musk also runs two other major companies, Tesla and SpaceX, along with some start-ups.

But the terms of the deal mean it wouldn’t be easy for Musk to walk away. Musk has agreed to complete it unless something major happens to Twitter’s business, and legal experts doubt the bot issue would qualify.

In emphasis, Twitter, which initially fought Musk’s takeover bid, would be a weaker company if the deal falls apart than when Musk first bought a stake, and experts expect Twitter to fight to get it done. Twitter itself has said it intends to complete the deal. Even if Musk convinces a judge to let him walk away, he could still be on the hook for the deal’s $1 billion breakup fee.