Shares of Twitter (TWTR) are down 7% after Elon Musk announced that he is terminating his
$44 billion U.S. takeover of the social media company.
Late last week, a lawyer for Elon Musk, who is the chief executive officer of electric vehicle
maker Tesla (TSLA), informed Twitter’s board of directors that he wants to cancel the deal.
Musk has taken issue with the number of bots and fake accounts on Twitter and says the
company isn’t being truthful about how much activity on the service is illegitimate.
For its part, Twitter says it has given Musk the information he needs to assess its claim that
spam accounts make up 5% of monetizable daily active users.
Bret Taylor, chair of Twitter’s board of directors, said the company would pursue legal action to
enforce the acquisition agreement.
Musk responded to Taylor’s comments by posting a meme mocking Twitter management over
the botched deal. It features images of Musk laughing alongside text claiming the company is
trying to “force” him to buy it in court.
Musk is one of Twitter’s most popular users, with over 100 million followers. He’s used the
social media platform for corporate communications and to criticize the platform he previously
wanted to purchase.
Twitter’s stock has fallen 14% year to date to trade at $36.81 U.S. a share.
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