tech billionaire Elon Musk (50) is stepping up its efforts to find its way out of the acquisition deal Twitter keep open. In a letter published on Monday by his lawyers to Twitter’s chief lawyer Vijaya Gadde (48), it said that the company refused to provide him with data for his own research on the number of spam and fake accounts. This is a violation of the takeover agreement. That’s why he reserves the right to withdraw from the deal.
Musk has been trying since mid-May to address Twitter’s allegedly false estimates of the number of spam and fake accounts. He therefore already declared the takeover deal to be suspended. From Twitter’s point of view, however, Musk cannot unilaterally put the agreement on hold.
Also on Monday, the company emphasized in a statement in the “Wall Street Journal”, among others, that it was still determined to push through the takeover on the agreed terms. The question of whether Musk’s allegations give him sufficient reason to withdraw from the deal could ultimately be decided in court.
Musk offered Twitter shareholders $54.20 per share. The price of the online service has already come under pressure after his statements in the past few weeks and fell by 1.49 percent to $39.56 on Monday after the exit threat. In a first reaction, the minus was even higher at over 6 percent.
Twitter itself estimates that fake accounts make up less than 5 percent of its user base. The company speaks of 229 million daily users that the service can reach with its advertising. The fake accounts identified by Twitter have already been deducted.
Twitter boss Parag Agrawal (38) also emphasized that the service blocks more than half a million spam accounts every day – usually before users see them. Estimates of the number of fake accounts from outside the company cannot be made seriously, he warned.
Musk’s lawyers wrote in their letter that the terms of the takeover deal required Twitter to provide data and information that Musk requested related to the transaction. Contrary to what is shown by Twitter, this obligation to provide information does not only apply to very limited purposes, they argued.
Texas Attorney General jumps to Musk’s side
Musk was backed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (59), who announced an investigation into Twitter’s information about the number of fake accounts. The company is now asked to provide information on this within three weeks. Republican Paxton has long been at odds with Twitter and other online platforms. He accuses them of suppressing conservative views.
A Texas law promoted by Paxton prohibited the online services from taking action against any user’s expression of opinion. A side effect of this would be that the platforms cannot remove hate speech, for example. The law was approved by the Supreme Court United States exposed.
Musk relocated the headquarters of the electric car manufacturer Tesla, which he manages, from California to Texas and recently announced that he would vote for the Republicans in future elections.