Elon Musk’s effort to buy Twitter for $44 billion may be over. Tesla’s CEO told Twitter’s board Friday that he terminated the deal. Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, announced a bid to buy Twitter on April 25, proposing to buy the entire company for $54.20 per share.
Elon Musk Withdraws From Twitter Bid
Musk has canceled a $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, according to the letter sent to Twitter’s board by his lawyers on behalf of billionaire Elon Musk on Friday. “Mr Musk is terminating the merger agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect,” Musk’s lawyers wrote a statement for the Twitter board.
Twitter has not yet made any official comment on this letter. Also, it is unclear whether there will be a legal dispute over the deal or whether Twitter will receive the $1 billion breakup fee – this requirement comes from the 95-page acquisition agreement filed by US Security and Exchange Commission.
Twitter’s shares dropped 5% Friday to $36.81, much below the $54.20 Musk had offered to pay. Meanwhile, Tesla’s stock increased by 2.5 percent to $752.29 per share. Most Tesla investors thought Elon Musk would sell Tesla shares for the Twitter deal.
Tesla’s CEO said on May 13 that he was waiting for information from Twitter, and the deal was on hold since Twitter claims that less than 5% of its users are spam or fake accounts. Elon Musk claims the real percentage is 20%, and Twitter will need to provide evidence of the lower number.
Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of $237.9 billion. Musk is the CEO of the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and a cofounder of SpaceX, which builds spaceships.
