Musk’s X ends $90 million lawsuit against law firm Wachtell

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By Mike Scarcella

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Elon Musk’s social media platform X has ended its lawsuit against elite law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz that sought to recover most of a $90 million fee the firm received for defeating Musk’s bid to walk away from his multibillion-dollar purchase of Twitter.

X told a state court in California in a filing on Wednesday that it was dismissing its lawsuit with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled.

The filing did not provide details about the reasons for the dismissal of the case, which was filed in 2023. Musk changed Twitter’s name to X after he acquired the company in 2022. X, Wachtell and lawyers for both sides did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Earlier, a judge ruled that the dispute must be considered in private arbitration. X and Wachtell were due to update the court at a hearing in early December.

The lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court said Wachtell, which represented Twitter in the buyout battle, had received “an improper bonus payment in violation of its fiduciary and ethical obligations to its client.”

Musk said in the lawsuit that Twitter executives in the lead-up to the close of the company’s sale “ran up the tab” by “designating tens of millions of dollars in handouts to the firms as ‘success’ or ‘project’ fees.”

Wachtell, known for its Wall Street deal work, denied any wrongdoing. In court, the firm countered that Twitter’s board “determined and approved” the fee, which forced Musk to honor his merger agreement and ensure “billions in value for Twitter’s stockholders.”

In a court filing, Wachtell said about its Twitter deal work that “after three-and-a-half months of round-the-clock litigation, Wachtell Lipton achieved complete success.”

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella. Editing by David Bario and David Gregorio)