Musk scraps US$44B Twitter deal over 'misleading representations'

Elon Musk said he’s terminating his US$44 billion agreement to acquire Twitter and take it private, saying the company has made “misleading representations” over the number of spam bots on the service.

Twitter hasn’t “complied with its contractual obligations” to provide information about how to assess how prevalent the bots are on the social medial service,” Musk said Friday in a letter to Twitter as part of a regulatory filing.

Twitter said it will fight back in court.

“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” Bret Taylor, chairman of the board, said in a Tweet. “We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”