Elon Musk is no longer buying Twitter. After many months of vocalizing his desire to buy the social media platform in a $44 billion deal, Elon has moved to terminate the deal, arguing that Twitter is in “material breach” of their acquisition agreement.
Elon’s legal team submitted a regulatory filing to back out of the agreement earlier this week. The documents claim that Twitter hasn’t provided the proper information necessary to determine the number of spam accounts on the platform.
Twitter previously claimed spam accounts make up less than 5% of users, but Elon claims this is inaccurate, and the number is higher.
“Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions […] [and] appears to have made false and misleading representations,” the filing argues.
However, backing out of the agreement will be easier said than done. In April, the SpaceX founder signed a contract with Twitter to buy the company for $54.20 per share. The New York Times explains that he “waved due diligence to get the deal done quickly.”
The contract includes a “$1 billion break-up free” should the purchase not go through. There’s also a clause that gives Twitter the right to sue Elon.
The billionaire’s decision to back out of the deal isn’t entirely surprising. In May, he announced his plans were on hold as he awaited further information about spam accounts statistics from Twitter – information he now says the company never handed over.
“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” he tweeted.
However, Elon added that he was “still committed to the acquisition.”
Elon – who just welcomed his 9th and 10th children – unveiled his plans to buy Twitter in April. The billionaire has said he wants to make Twitter a place for free speech and more “political neutral.”
"I want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans," he stated at the time.
Elon has also confirmed he wants to reinstate the Twitter account of former U.S. President Donald Trump, whose account was permanently suspended after it was determined he helped incite the riot on Capitol Hill in 2021.
However, with his move to back out of the acquisition, it appears Elon won’t be taking over Twitter after all. Elon's Twitter account has also since been suspended.