Elon Musk’s tumultuous $ 44 billion ($ 63 billion) offer to buy Twitter is on the verge of collapse after Tesla’s CEO sent a letter to Twitter’s board saying the acquisition is over.
Musk stated in a letter to Twitter’s lead attorney that he is terminating the agreement because Twitter is “materially violating several provisions” of the original agreement.
Musk has expressed concern for weeks, with no apparent evidence, that there are more robots and spam accounts on the platform than Twitter has publicly said.
Elon Musk has reportedly reversed his offer to buy Twitter. (Patrick Pleul)
Analysts have speculated that concerns may be an attempt to create a pretext to break out of a deal that may now be considered too precious after Twitter shares and the broader technology market have dwindled in recent weeks.
Shares of Tesla, which Musk had planned to rely in part to fund the deal, have also declined sharply since he accepted the deal.
“The Twitter Board agrees to close the transaction on the price and terms agreed with Mr. Musk and plans to take legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” said Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor, on Twitter on Friday, echoing previous statements from the company. which he planned to continue with the agreement.
“We are confident that we will prevail in the Delaware Chancellery Court.”
The possible outcome of the deal is just the latest twist in a saga between the richest man in the world and one of the most influential social media platforms.
Twitter shares fell nearly 6% in out-of-hours operations immediately after the news, after ending the day with a 5% drop. Tesla shares gained more than 1% in out-of-hours operations.
Musk said in May that the deal was “pending” as it assessed the number of spam and fake accounts on the platform, a reversal of his earlier statements he wanted to acquire Twitter to eradicate the platform’s robots.
Last month, he directly threatened to step away from the deal, accusing Twitter of breaching the merger deal by failing to provide the data it says it needed to assess the number of spam and fake accounts on the platform.
In response, Twitter agreed to deliver its stream of “fire manga” tweets.
However, Musk’s attorney alleged in Friday’s letter that Twitter “has failed to fulfill its contractual obligations” to provide Musk with sufficient data, and said Twitter “appears to have made false and misleading statements. on which Mr. Musk relied “when he accepted the agreement.
Musk claims that Twitter did not provide the data and information as part of the deal. (Getty)
“For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has been searching for the data and information needed to“ make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake accounts or spam on the Twitter platform, ”the letter says on Friday.
“This information is critical to Twitter’s business and financial performance and is necessary to complete the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement.”
He continues: “Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes rejected them for seemingly unjustified reasons, and sometimes has claimed compliance. while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or incomplete. unusable information “.
The billionaire reached an agreement to buy the social media company in April.
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