Elon Musk Threatens To Drop Twitter Deal if No Data Given on Spam, Fake Accounts

Musk had signed a deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion earlier this year.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter) 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Monday, 6 June, that he could walk away from his deal to acquire social media giant Twitter Inc, worth $44 billion, if the company failed to provide data on spam and fake accounts.

In a letter to Twitter, Musk's lawyers said that the company was in "clear material breach" of its obligations and that the Tesla CEO had all rights to terminate the agreement.

"Musk believes Twitter is transparently refusing to comply with its obligations under the merger agreement, which is causing further suspicion that the company is withholding the requested data due to concern for what Musk's own analysis of that data will uncover," the letter to Twitter stated, as per Reuters.

The letter also said that the company was actively resisting and thwarting Musk's information rights.

Twitter Deal 'On Hold'

On 13 May, Musk had tweeted that the "Twitter deal is temporarily on hold" with a link to a report about the microblogging site's claim that spam and fake accounts represent less than 5 percent of its users. However, he had said that he was still committed to the acquisition.

Removing such accounts was one of Musk's promises to Twitter users. "A top priority I would have is eliminating the spam and scam bots and the bot armies that are on Twitter," he had said at a TED conference.

On 25 April, Musk had signed a deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion, at $54.20 per share, after weeks of uncertainty. However, the deal is far from coming to a close.

(With inputs from Reuters.)