Since Elon officially backed out he's violating the contract, so he'd be the one paying $1b. But I strongly think that the SEC will force the sale through just to fuck him over.
Most contracts have performance provisions that allow a party to terminate. The $1B was IF nobody screwed up. He offered money for a certain item. They switched the item for a bag of steaming poo. He informs them that he was never in the market for a steaming bag of poo. Twitter violated the contract when they couldn't produce the product that they offered
Since Elon officially backed out he's violating the contract, so he'd be the one paying $1b. But I strongly think that the SEC will force the sale through just to fuck him over.
Most contracts have performance provisions that allow a party to terminate. The $1B was IF nobody screwed up. He offered money for a certain item. They switched the item for a bag of steaming poo. He informs them that he was never in the market for a steaming bag of poo. Twitter violated the contract when they couldn't produce the product that they offered