Twitter has failed to pay more than $1 million to a software vendor and the company intends to charge the firm an additional $7 million in payments, a new lawsuit says.
A company called Imply Data, Inc. sued Twitter in California Superior Court last week for alleged breach of contract. The company is demanding financial damages.
Not long after Elon Musk acquired the company in late October, rumors were circulating that Twitter was failing to pay its bills — including rent for its offices — as advertisers fled the network. The company has addressed a slew of whiplash-causing changes, including laying off half its workforce and restarting a revamped paid Twitter Blue subscription program.
“For over four years, Imply has licensed its proprietary software to Twitter, and Twitter has paid Imply over $10 million,” according to the lawsuit, which was obtained by ArsTechnica.
Twitter has failed to pay more than $1 million to a software vendor and the company intends to charge the firm an additional $7 million in payments, a new lawsuit says
“Twitter has always been very pleased with Imply’s product and associated maintenance and support services, so in mid-2021 the parties extended the term of their software license and services agreement for a further three years from October 1st, 2021 to September 30th, 2024.”
The lawsuit alleges that Twitter continued to make quarterly payments until its purchase of Musk, which closed on Oct. 24. reached out to Twitter for comment on the lawsuit, but Musk has reportedly closed his press office.
However, shortly after Musk’s purchase of Twitter was completed, Twitter refused to pay the outstanding quarterly bill due November 30, 2022, and Twitter declined any obligation to pay future bills from Imply, despite clear language in the software license and a service agreement that requires Twitter to do so,” the lawsuit reads.
Imply uploaded an invoice for $1,092,000 to Twitter’s supplier portal and it was approved on October 5, but when the company attempted to access the supplier portal on November 28, it learned that Twitter deleted the invoice and the license agreement between the two companies.
The database company further alleges in its lawsuit that Twitter uploaded an internal email chain that supported these actions.
Not long after Elon Musk’s takeover in late October, rumors circulated that Twitter wasn’t paying its bills — including the rent for its offices
That chain included a message from Martin O’Neill, Head of Global Strategic Sourcing at Twitter, which said:
“An indication that we will no longer pay Imply. If we could flag them in our accounts payable system so they don’t forward any of their invoices for approval that would be great, thank you!’
However, when Imply tried to follow up on the bill’s cancellation, Twitter didn’t substantially respond.
“Twitter has expressly, unequivocally and absolutely rejected and abandoned the license agreement, stating that Twitter will not pay Imply and instructing its employees not to approve invoices and to disable Imply from the vendor portal. Twitter violated the license agreement by doing so,” the lawsuit said.
While it’s possible Musk’s network may claim it has the right to terminate the contract with Imply, the data company said in the complaint that there is dispute over whether Twitter can unilaterally take such action.
The lawsuit seeks damages that are likely to exceed $8 million, Imply told the court in its lawsuit.
A recent poll conducted by Musk on Twitter found that 57% of users would like him to step down from running the network.
Musk was forced to rescind a recent policy change that threatened to ban any users who used links promoting other social networks like Facebook and Instagram on Twitter.
HOW ELSE CAN MUSK CHANGE TWITTER?
- Charge a subscription fee of $20 per month for a “Blue Tick”.
- Show more
- Relax content restrictions
- Pay content creators
- Make its algorithms open source
- Get rid of spam bots with strengthened authentication checks
- Cheaper verification service “Twitter Blue”.
- Edit button for users worldwide
- Bring Vine back and integrate with Twitter
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