Musk threatens to sever ties with Twitter over bot account
data.
Elon Musk's lawyer claims that the platform is "thwarting his information rights" by refusing to provide further information about bogus accounts.
Elon Musk, a billionaire, has threatened to back out of a
$44 billion plan to acquire Twitter if the social media network does not
deliver data on bot and spam accounts that he has requested.
The attorneys for Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk accused
Twitter of "resisting and blocking his information rights" under the
deal to buy the platform in a letter to the business on Monday.
They stated, "This is a clear significant breach of
Twitter's commitments under the merger agreement, and Mr. Musk retains all
rights arising therefrom, including the right not to finalise the transaction
and the right to cancel the merger agreement."
Twitter stated that it plans to complete the transaction at
the agreed-upon price and parameters.
"Twitter has shared information with Musk
collaboratively in order to complete the acquisition in line with the terms of
the merger agreement," the firm said in a statement on Monday.
The Twitter board unanimously decided to sell the platform
to Musk for $44 billion in April, but the deal still needs shareholder
approval.
Musk stated in a statement announcing the partnership at the
time that "fighting the spam bots" will be one of the platform's
primary goals.
However, Musk announced last month that the deal had been
put on hold due to the problem.
On May 13, Musk stated on Twitter, "Twitter transaction
currently on hold for details supporting computation that spam/fake accounts do
fact comprise fewer than 5% of users." However, he then clarified that he
is still "committed" to the transaction.
Experts speculated on Monday that Musk would try to back out
of the acquisition deal or fight for a revaluation of the platform.
Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC,
told the Reuters news agency, "It's very evident that he has buyer's
remorse and he's trying anything he can to obtain a price drop, and I think he
may succeed."
"You can see the selloff in social media stocks, and
he's realised he paid too much... All of these are gimmicks to attain a lower
price."
According to the Associated Press, Musk is "searching
for a way out of the arrangement or anything that will get leverage for a
renegotiate of the price," according to Brian Quinn, a law professor at
Boston College.
According to AP and Reuters, if Musk backs out of the
arrangement, he might be liable for a $1 billion breakup fee.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal claimed last month that the social
media network thinks that less than 5% of all users are fraudulent. However, he
underlined the difficulty of distinguishing actual individuals from bots and
accounts used in spam campaigns in a series of tweets.
"The difficult aspect is that many accounts that appear
to be phoney on the surface are actually real persons," he wrote.
"And some of the most hazardous spam accounts – and
those that inflict the greatest harm to our customers – might appear quite
legal on the surface."
Musk's attorneys wrote on Monday that since the platform is
confident in its public projections, they don't understand why the platform is
reluctant to let him "independently examine" the data.
Aside from the money, Musk's attempt to buy Twitter has
sparked a discussion over free speech and the role of social media sites in
managing the flow of information.
Musk announced last month that he would enable former
President Donald Trump to return to the platform.
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