Elon Musk‘s newest attack on Twitter came in the form of a letter from his lawyer, in which he accused the firm of “refusing to comply” with his concerns about bots and other issues, threatening to withdraw his $44 billion acquisition offer.
In April, Musk’s unsolicited offer was accepted by Twitter. Musk has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with the arrangement in the weeks since it was signed, notably on Twitter. He had recently been interested in the number of false accounts, or “bots,” on the social network and had requested data on the subject.
In a letter to Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde this morning, Musk’s lawyer, Mike Ringler, expressed his discontent with Twitter. The major point Ringler made was that Musk is entitled to the information he requested because of the financial arrangements he made to accomplish the acquisition.
“Mr. Musk is not obligated to justify his reasoning for obtaining the data, nor is he required to accept the new conditions the corporation has attempted to put on his contractual entitlement to the requested data,” Ringler concluded. “At this time, Mr. Musk believes Twitter is openly defying its merger agreement responsibilities.”
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“This is a clear substantial breach of Twitter’s commitments under the merger agreement,” the letter said, “and Mr. Musk reserves all rights arising from it, including his right not to finalize the deal and his right to cancel the merger agreement.”
Despite the stock market’s favorable start to the week, Twitter’s stock fell 4% in morning trading to roughly $38 per share on the announcement of the letter. Since the purchase was announced on April 25, they’ve lost more than a quarter of its value. Twitter is worth $54.20 per share after the all-cash deal.
