Elon Musk Shuts Down $44 Billion Twitter Deal

Elon Musk has decided to terminate his $44 billion dollar agreement with Twitter bosses just months after he announced plans to buy the company.

Though there have been a lot of jokes about Musk taking control of the platform and making unwanted changes to Twitter over the last few months, the SpaceX CEO didn't officially become the owner of Twitter when he announced his agreement in April.

At the time, Musk said he had hopes to unlock Twitter's potential and make it 'better than ever' when he did officially become the owner, after going through the buying process with Twitter, but on Friday, 8 July, his lawyer sent a letter to Twitter's chief legal officer saying he wanted to end the deal.

The reason for the termination , lawyer Mike Ringler claimed, is because Twitter allegedly did not provide Musk with information he had requested according to their contract. Musk had wanted to take a closer look at Twitter’s claims that about five percent of its accounts were spam, but Ringler said Twitter had '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," he wrote in the letter.

The lawyer also claimed Twitter had breached the agreement by having layoffs, thereby failing to get Musk's consent before changing its course of business, and by including 'materially inaccurate representations' in the agreement; an accusation based on Musk's own review of spam accounts on Twitter.

Ringer wrote: “While this analysis remains ongoing, all indications suggest that several of Twitter’s public disclosures regarding its mDAUs are either false or materially misleading."

In response to the news about Musk's decision, Twitter's board chair Bret Taylor posted tweeted to say the company is still determined to close the deal.

Taylor revealed Twitter plans to take legal action to complete the agreement, writing: "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."

When Musk first reached an agreement with Twitter he agreed to pay $1 billion if he chose to back out of the deal, though Twitter could respond by suing him if they disagree with his reasoning for being let out of the contract, which appears to be the direction it plans to take.

Musk first agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, but as news of his decision to walk away came to light shares fell five percent to $36.81.

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