Twitter stiffed us on $2m bill, claim consultants • The Register

International consultancy Charles River Associates (CRA) has joined the queue of corporations claiming Twitter walked away with out paying its tab.

The corporate, employed to offer professional testimony and consulting providers to Twitter’s previous administration in litigation towards Elon Musk in 2022, previous to the completion of the $44 billion deal, filed its declare on January 19 within the Suffolk County Superior Courtroom, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

It alleges Twitter breached its contract with CRA after the consultancy itself did work on that well-known breach of contract swimsuit, again when “Outdated Twitter” sued the now Chief Twit for allegedly reneging on his settlement to purchase the microblogging platform for $54.20 a share in money in July 2022, though it feels for much longer in the past to many people.

Musk countersued in August, claiming he’d been misled concerning the variety of bots floating round, though by October (unbelievably, solely three months in the past) the deal was completed on the unique valuation, although not with out some moaning from the billionaire about how a lot he’d overpaid.

CRA says it signed a contract with three completely different regulation corporations within the Musk litigation, all of which signed “on behalf of Twitter.”

Amongst different issues, CRA claimed in its civil criticism that it sorted an professional rebuttal report back to counter anticipated testimony from financing, solvency and valuation professional Yvette Austin Smith, who was to testify for the “Musk events,” based on the submitting.

Along with suing for breach of contract, CRA claims in its criticism, seen by The Register, that Twitter ought to pay “double or treble” damages beneath Chapter 93A, a Massachusetts regulation that appears at unfair enterprise practices.

“The whole quantity of the Invoices which have been rendered to Twitter and stay unpaid are $2,189,001.83,” it acknowledged, alleging that Twitter had “breached the Contract by failing to pay all the CRA invoices.”

The consultancy’s criticism joins a bunch of civil claims towards Twitter alleging breach of contracts signed previous to the takeover, together with a December lawsuit filed in California by Indicate Knowledge Inc, a software program dev seeking greater than $8 million claiming Twitter canceled its bill for a quarterly fee after deciding to not renew a license settlement deal. In the meantime, a private jet provider sued Twitter for allegedly failing to pay the invoice for 2 flights taken by former chief advertising officer Leslie Berland as Musk was getting ready to shut the $44 billion acquisition.

There’s additionally a breach of contract declare from landlord Columbia Property Belief. CPT owns an workplace tower at 650 California Avenue in San Francisco, the place Twitter rents the thirtieth flooring (and the place, on one other, undisclosed flooring, a number of of The Register‘s SF bureau vultures generally perch). The property proprietor is claiming Twitter owes it greater than $136,000.

Elsewhere, the social media firm can be going through off towards lawsuits that declare it violated labor legal guidelines and that layoffs have been carried out with out sufficient discover, together with a British action claiming the way in which the American big goes concerning the collective session redundancy course of would not conform to UK regulation. ®