Twitter deal dead

Elon Musk’s tumultuous will-he-or-won’t-he $44 billion bid to buy Twitter deal dead in the water after the Tesla CEO sent a letter to the social media company’s board saying he was terminating the acquisition. The drama between Twitter and the world’s richest man was set off in March, when Musk announced he would pull the funds together to buy the company that he thought was failing to live up to its potential to promote free speech. He also revealed that he had been talking to executives at Twitter, including co-founder Jack Dorsey, to let them know he was buying up shares in an attempt to gain a majority. However, in the weeks that followed, Musk wavered between doubling down on his determination to buy the company and then threatening to walk away from the deal. In a court filing, Musk’s lawyers said that Twitter had breached the acquisition agreement by failing to provide enough information about fake accounts on its platform. According to the document, this was an important piece of data for measuring the company’s business performance. It is not clear however whether Twitter’s board would accept the $1 billion breakup fee or would go to court. Shares of Twitter fell 6% in extended trading following the news. TW

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