Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that his $44 billion Twitter buyout deal has been terminated, citing ‘multiple’ problems after putting the acquisition “temporarily on hold” in May pending details supporting calculations that spam/fake accounts represent a larger than previously declared percentage of users.
The Financial Times reports that Musk has said Twitter was “in material breach of multiple provisions” of the sale agreement, and “appear[ed] to have made false and misleading representations,” noting how the number of spam and fake accounts on the platform were “wildly higher” than the 5 percent disclosed by Twitter during the initial takeover discussions, according to a filing by Musk.
Musk acquired a 9.2% stake in the platform at the beginning of April for $2.89 billion, becoming one of the biggest shareholders in Twitter, with a more significant stake in the company than the former CEO, Jack Dorsey. Two weeks later, Musk proposed a $43 billion buyout of the company, with Twitter saying at the time that it would consider the offer “carefully.”
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