Elon Musk has told the social media giant that the $44 billion buyout is off, citing “false and misleading representations”
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has canceled his previously agreed $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, accusing the social media company of “material breach of multiple provisions” of the merger agreement in a letter on Friday evening.
Under the April 25 agreement, Twitter was obligated to provide Musk with the data he requested, in order to “make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform,” said the letter, sent by his attorneys to the company’s Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde.
Musk said that information was necessary to finance and plan the buyout and “engage in transition planning” for the firm, but Twitter “failed or refused” to provide it, the lawyers said. The company either ignored his requests, “rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified,” or claimed to comply while giving Musk “incomplete or unusable information,” according to the letter.
The billionaire maker of spaceships and electric cars first disclosed a large purchase of Twitter shares in early April, then proposed to buy the platform outright. The company’s board at first sought to fight off the hostile takeover with “poison pills,” then accepted his offer on April 25.