Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal May Not Happen After All

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The letter, which is included in the filing from Twitter with the SEC, states, “Twitter has, in fact, refused to provide the information that Mr. Musk has repeatedly requested since May 9, 2022 to facilitate his evaluation of spam and fake accounts on the company’s platform. Twitter’s latest offer to simply provide additional details regarding the company’s own testing methodologies, whether through written materials or verbal explanations, is tantamount to refusing Mr. Musk’s data requests.”

According to the filing, Musk has been requesting this information from Twitter to look into how many of the platform’s more than 200 million accounts might be fake, but Twitter allegedly won’t provide the number. Instead, the social media platform is only willing to provide the way they tally the accounts.

Bot accounts are a concern for Musk, who, as a popular Twitter user, has found himself the target of copycat accounts and spam accounts. Twitter has provided a bot account estimate to the SEC in the past, according to AP, though it has admitted the the number could be too low. Because of the willingness to share in the past, though, Musk’s letter calls into question why this estimate can’t be shared with him prior to the sale going through.

“This is a clear material breach of Twitter’s obligations under the merger agreement and Mr. Musk reserves all rights resulting therefrom, including his right not to consummate the transaction and his right to terminate the merger agreement,” the letter says.

AP alleges that Musk is allowed out of his Twitter deal if there is “material adverse effect” caused by the company, which essentially boils down to any kind of change that negatively affects Twitter’s business or finances. Experts are theorizing that this is Musk’s way of attempting to get out of the deal, as one told AP, but it’s unlikely that Musk will simply be able to back out of the commitment.

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