Elon Musk has accused Twitter of committing a “material breach” of its $ 44 billion deal to buy the company and has threatened to terminate the deal, in the clearest indication so far that the richest man in the world is preparing to abandon the acquisition.
Musk’s lawyers have written on Twitter accusing him of refusing to provide enough information about the number of fake users on the service, as part of a slow-fire dispute over the number of spam and fake accounts they fill the platform.
In a letter to Twitter chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, lawyers representing Musk said he believed the company was “actively resisting and frustrating” its rights to access company data and information. under the agreement. The letter said that Twitter had not provided the information requested by Musk since May 9, and added that a formal response from Twitter on June 1 was insufficient.
The letter concluded with a warning that Musk reserved all his rights under the agreement, including his right to leave the agreement and “terminate” the agreement.
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“This is a clear material breach of Twitter’s obligations under the Merger Agreement and Mr. Musk reserves all rights arising therefrom, including his right not to consummate the transaction and his right to terminate the merger agreement, “the letter said.
The formal legal letter, released Monday by the US financial watchdog, follows a negotiating process by tweet conducted by Musk in recent weeks. On May 17, he tweeted that the deal “cannot move forward” until the issue of spam and fake accounts has been resolved.
Fake or spam accounts, known as bot accounts, are automated and not managed by human users. They can use the response feature or direct messages to send ads or scams to users, or represent attempts to influence public discourse by tweeting political propaganda.