Elon Musk threatens to abandon $44 billion Twitter deal

Elon Musk’s legal team has written to Twitter threatening to abort his $44 billion acquisition after the social media company failed to satisfy his demands for more detailed information about spam and fake accounts, the Financial Times reported.

This was not the first time Musk had suggested publicly his acquisition of Twitter may not happen. But the warning, delivered in a letter from Musk’s lawyers to Twitter’s chief legal officer, Vijaya Gadde, marked an escalation. It accused Twitter of being in “material breach” of its deal obligations.

Musk’s threats to tear up the deal have coincided with the share plunges of many technology stocks – including the electric car maker that he leads, Tesla Inc.

 amid concerns over an economic slowdown and higher interest rates in the face of raging inflation.

Twitter shares ended down 1.5% at $39.57 on Monday, a large discount to the agreed $52.20 deal price, as investors bet that Musk will either convince Twitter to agree to a lower deal price or walk away.

In the letter to Twitter on Monday, the billionaire reiterated his request for details on bot accounts and said he reserved all rights to terminate the acquisition as the company was in a “clear material breach” of its obligations by not providing him with the information.

Twitter responded that it planned to enforce the completion of the deal on the agreed terms. “Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Musk to consummate the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement,” the company said in a statement.