Florida pension fund sues Musk, Twitter over $44bn takeover

Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyouts of Twitter Inc. was challenged in a lawsuit by a Florida pension fund that argues the deal can’t close before 2025 because Musk was an “interested shareholder” in the social networking platform.

The Orlando Police Pension Fund, Florida filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday. According to the complaint, Musk had agreements with other major Twitter shareholders — including founder Jack Dorsey — to rely on their holdings when offering to take the company private last month. Those arrangements triggered a Delaware law that calls for a three-year delay in closing such deals, the fund claims.

Musk’s Twitter acquisition features one of the biggest leveraged buyout deals in history. He’s taking private a 16-year-old social networking platform that has become a hub of public discourse and a flashpoint in the debate over online free speech. Musk disclosed Thursday a group of investors were kicking in more than $7 billion of equity towards the deal. They include Oracle Corp. billionaire Larry Ellison, venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital and cryptocurrency exchange Binance Holdings Ltd.

A representative for Musk didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment on the pension fund’s suit.