WILMINGTON, Del.—Elon Musk contended that Twitter Inc.’s decision to pay millions of dollars to a whistleblower it had fired gives the world’s richest person another justification for terminating his $44 billion agreement to buy the social media company.
In a Friday letter to Twitter, lawyers for Musk said Twitter’s failure to seek his consent before paying $7.75 million to Peiter Zatko and his lawyers violated the merger agreement, which restricted when Twitter could make such payments.
The payment, which included $7 million for Zatko, “cannot be cured,” and Musk is therefore “not required” to complete the merger, the letter said. A copy was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission….