Tesla chief Elon Musk seems to be miffed with Twitter as the billionaire entrepreneur threatened to call off the $44 billion acquisition of the social micro-blogging site for not providing the data requested on spam and fake accounts. A CNN report quoted a letter sent to Twitter in which Musk has accused that Twitter is "actively resisting and thwarting his information rights" as outlined by the deal. The letter has been sent to Twitter's head of legal, policy and trust, Vijaya Gadde.
Musk had earlier sought information about Twitter’s testing methodologies to support its claims that bots and fake accounts constitute less than 5 percent of the platform's active user base. It is being speculated since then that Twitter may be "withholding the requested data due to concern for what Musk's own analysis of that data will uncover," according to the report.
"This is a clear material breach of Twitter's obligations under the merger agreement and Musk reserves all rights resulting therefrom, including his right not to consummate the transaction and his right to terminate the merger agreement," the report quoted the letter from attorney representing Musk.
Infact, Musk’s team could consider a massive change in strategy amid concerns about spam and fake accounts, the Washington Post reported.
The report stated that the talks between Musk's team and investors over the deal have slowed recently because the team feels Twitter has not been "cooperative" in sharing information about fake accounts.
Even as Musk insisted on independent assessment based on Twitter data, Wall Street analysts believe that this may appear to be a case of buyer's remorse and a meaure aimed at pressuring Twitter into negotiating a lower price for the $44 billion deal, CNN reported.
In a separate securities filing, Twitter had previously mentioned that Musk had waived a due diligence clause in the deal that may have enabled him to exit the agreement but without it, Musk could may face a tougher situation and chances of litigation.
Meanwhile, Twitter has said it removes 1 million spam accounts daily amid speculation over uncertainty over the deal, news agency AP reported.
Musk had threatened to pull back the offer if it was not proven than less than 5 percent of the total users of Twitter were spam accounts.
Sharing the estimates to the the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Twitter has always refered to the figures on bots, albeit, with a disclaimer that the numbers may be higher than what was estimated.