SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk has pulled the plug on his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, accusing the social media giant of “misleading” statements about the number of fake accounts, a regulatory filing showed.
Musk s effort to terminate the deal that he inked in April sets the stage for an epic court battle over a billion-dollar breakup fee and more.
“Mr. Musk hereby exercises (the) right to terminate the Merger Agreement and abandon the transaction,” his lawyers said in a letter to Twitter, a copy of which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Musk s change of heart appeared to suggest some “buyer s remorse” for offering a price of $54.20 per share that now appears “laughable,” CFRA Research senior equity analyst Angelo Zino said in a note to investors before the deal was officially nixed.
Twitter has held firm that no more than five percent of accounts are run by software instead of people, while Musk has said he believes the number to be much higher.
Immediately after the news broke, Twitter board chair Bret Taylor vowed to sue Musk to hold him to the terms of the buyout deal, saying “we are confident we will prevail.”
