The legal fight between Elon Musk and Twitter Inc. is also shaping up to be a battle between courtroom heavyweights.
Bloomberg News reported Sunday that Twitter
TWTR,
has hired merger-law experts Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to represent the company as it sues Musk, who announced Friday he was backing out of a $44 billion takeover deal.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Musk has hired Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, which successfully defended the Tesla
TSLA,
chief executive in the 2019 “pedo guy” defamation suit, and is defending him against a current shareholder suit over his 2018 “funding secured” tweet. The firm also defended Samsung Electronics
005930,
over Apple Inc.’s
AAPL,
patent lawsuit.
Wachtell touts itself as handling “some of the largest, most complex and demanding transactions in the United States and around the world,” and boasts “a track record of original and groundbreaking solutions and innovations that have had a dramatic impact on business and law.” Among its attorneys, the firm has Leo Strine, a former chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery — where the case may be heard — and William Savitt, an experienced litigator who specializes in M&A disputes. The founder of the firm, Martin Lipton, is credited with inventing the “poison pill” defense that Twitter used.
Both firms are regarded as among the top in the country.
Investors will be keeping an eye on shares of Twitter and Tesla when the market opens Monday. Tesla shares jumped 2.3% higher in after-hours trading Friday after Musk’s announcement, while Twitter stock sank almost 5% in the extended session.
