Elon Musk terminates deal to buy Twitter

(Image credit: TED)

What you need to know

Per a letter, Elon Musk says he no longer wants to buy Twitter.
The deal was valued at $44 billion.
Musk has notified the company, but Twitter chairman Bret Taylor says the board is looking to pursue legal action.

Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk says he no longer wants to buy Twitter, which was first reported by Bloomberg.

This is according to a letter he submitted to Twitter "formally notifying the company that he is terminating the merger agreement."

According to the SEC document, Musk cites Twitter's inability to disclose accurate data on the number of spam or bot accounts on the platform. His lawyer Mike Ringler, who authored the letter, said that Musk had reached out numerous times for that information.

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"He views Twitter’s non-responsiveness as a material breach of the Merger Agreement giving him the right to terminate the Merger Agreement if uncured," the letter states.

In a press release, Twitter acknowledged receiving the letter.

Bret Taylor, chairman of Twitter, said in a tweet: "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. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery."

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. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.July 8, 2022

This comes several weeks after Twitter said it was in the final stages of negotiations to sell itself to Musk for $54.20 per share.

Musk offered to buy all of Twitter's common stock for that price and stated in his letter to Twitter that the social networking site has the potential to be "the platform for free speech around the globe."

However, Twitter enacted a "shareholder rights plan" in response to Musk's "unsolicited, non-binding" bid. This precluded him from acquiring an additional stake in the company. Musk previously bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter worth $2.89 billion, making him the company's largest individual shareholder.

He warned that if the offer was declined, he would reconsider his position as a shareholder.

Shruti Shekar is Android Central's Editor-in-Chief. She was born in India, brought up in Singapore, but now lives in Toronto. She started her journalism career as a political reporter in Ottawa, Canada's capital, and then made her foray into tech journalism at MobileSyrup and most recently at Yahoo Finance Canada. When work isn't on her mind, she loves working out, reading, watching the Raptors, and planning what she's going to eat the next day.