Elon Musk’s social media platform X has ended a 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 exit his multibillion-dollar purchase of Twitter.
Company X said in a California state court filing on Wednesday that its lawsuit is being dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
The filing did not provide details on the reasons for dismissing the case, which was filed in 2023. Musk changed Twitter’s name to X after acquiring the company in 2022. X and his lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Wachtell spokesman said in a statement that the firm is “pleased that X has dismissed its frivolous lawsuit with prejudice. There has been no settlement.”
The judge had previously ruled that the dispute must be heard in private arbitration. X and Wachtell were scheduled 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, received an “improper bonus payment in violation of its fiduciary and ethical obligations to its client.”
Musk said in the lawsuit that Twitter executives “snapped” the company in the run-up to the sale by “marking tens of millions of dollars in divested businesses as ‘success’ or ‘project’ fees.”
Wachtell, known for his work on Wall Street, has denied any wrongdoing. In court, the firm countered that Twitter’s board of directors “determined and approved” the fee, forcing Musk to honor his merger agreement and deliver “billions of value to Twitter shareholders.”
In a court filing, Wachtell said of his work on Twitter that “after three and a half months of continuous litigation, Wachtell Lipton has achieved complete success.”
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella. Editing by David Bario and David Gregorio)
