Elon Musk says he will end Twitter takeover deal

Elon Musk’s $44bn (£36.5bn) deal to buy Twitter is on the verge of collapse – after Tesla’s chief executive sent a letter to the social media company’s board saying he would end the takeover.

Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor tweeted Friday that the board is “committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed with Mr. Musk and plans to take legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident that the Delaware Chancery Court will win.”

In that case, Twitter could have asked Musk to agree to a $1 billion breakup fee. Instead, it looks ready to fight for the deal, which the company’s board has approved and CEO Parag Agrawal insists he wants to close.

The possible collapse of the deal is just the latest twist in the saga between the world’s richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms.

Much of the drama took place on Twitter, where Mr. Musk, who has more than 95 million followers, lamented the company’s failure to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech.

Shares of Twitter fell 5 percent to $36.81 on Friday, well below Musk’s proposed $54.20. Meanwhile, Tesla shares rose 2.5% to $752.29.

In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk said Twitter “failed to comply with its contractual obligations” surrounding the transaction by providing him with enough information to “respond to false or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform.” universality for an independent assessment”.

Mr Musk’s teaser for buying Twitter appears to have started in late March. That’s when Twitter said he contacted board members — including co-founder Jack Dorsey — and told them he was buying stock in the company and was interested in joining the board, taking Twitter private or starting a competitor.

Then, on April 4, he revealed in a regulatory filing that he had become the company’s largest shareholder after taking a 9% stake worth about $3 billion.

At first, Twitter offered Musk a board seat. But six days later, Agrawal tweeted that Musk would not be joining the board after all. After that, his offer to buy the company came quickly.

Mr. Musk has agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, inserting a “420” cannabis reference in his offer. He sold about $8.5 billion worth of Tesla stock to fund the acquisition, before stepping up his various investments from Silicon Valley heavyweights including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison more than $7 billion in commitments from investors.

Inside Twitter, Musk’s proposal was met with confusion and low morale, especially after he publicly criticized one of Twitter’s top lawyers for participating in content moderation decisions.

As Twitter executives prepared to move forward with the deal, the company froze hiring, halted discretionary spending and fired two senior executives.

The San Francisco company has also been cutting jobs, most recently as part of its talent acquisition team.