Elon Musk has pulled out of his $44 billion Twitter deal.
The 51-year-old business magnate - who is thought to be worth almost $225 billion - bought the microblogging website back in April 2022 in a deal worth $44 billion but has now accused Twitter of lying about the number of bots and spam accounts on the platform, as well as failing to provide material he asked for.
His buyout letter reads: "This information is fundamental to Twitter's business and financial performance and is necessary to consummate. Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk's requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information.
The Tesla founder claimed to have made "provided numerous additional follow-up requests" but alleged that all of them had gone unfounded and explained that Twitter "did not comply" with its obligations, therefore giving him the right to terminate the deal.
The letter concluded: "Accordingly, for all of these reasons, Mr. Musk hereby exercises X Holdings I, Inc.’s right to terminate the Merger Agreement and abandon the transaction contemplated thereby, and this letter constitutes formal notice of X Holding I, Inc.’s termination of the Merger Agreement."
Following the decision to pull out, Twitter's current CEO Bret Taylor warned Elon that the company would pursue legal action in order to "force" the deal to take place.
He tweeted: "The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement."
