Musk drops Twitter purchase, tech company announces transaction

Billionaire Elon Musk abandons plans to buy Twitter. His lawyers wrote this to the SEC.

According to Musk’s legal team, Twitter failed to fulfill its contractual obligations and made false statements. “Twitter sometimes ignored Musk’s requests, sometimes was denied for apparently illegitimate reasons, and sometimes Twitter claimed to be complying with the requests while the company provided incomplete or unhelpful information.”

Musk has been arguing with Twitter about the actual number of daily users of the platform since he announced in mid-April that he wanted to acquire the social medium for about $44 billion. According to Musk, the company has not been honest about spam bots, which often automatically post questionable content. Twitter insisted it had a maximum of 5 percent of users.

In May, Musk actually halted a takeover bid to give Twitter time to provide more information on the subject, but although the company recently said it removes 1 million spam accounts daily, Musk remains critical. Earlier today, sources told US media that the deal was in jeopardy as a result.

Shortly after Musk’s decision was announced, Twitter responded that it wanted to proceed with the deal, rather than accepting a lump sum of $1 billion. The news appears to be a prelude to a long legal battle between the two parties.

Twitter shares are down about 5 percent. The value of just under $37 is significantly less than the 54.20 that Musk offered for the company’s stock.