Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, accused Twitter on Monday of “resisting and blocking” his access to information on bogus accounts active on the network, calling it a “clear material breach” of their merger agreement.
Musk has warned that if Twitter fails to disclose data on spam and fake accounts currently active on its platform, he may back out of the deal.
“Mr Musk reserves all rights flowing therefrom, including his right not to finalise the deal and his right to terminate the merger agreement,” according to a letter sent to Twitter.
The letter also noted that Twitter is compelled by the merger agreement to supply the data Musk requested, despite the company’s alleged argument that it is only needed to provide information for the restricted purpose of assisting in the transaction’s closing.
“On the contrary, Mr Musk has the right to request, and Twitter has the obligation to give, information and data for, among other things, ‘any reasonable business purpose linked to the closing of the deal,” according to the letter.
“At this point, Mr Musk feels Twitter is openly refusing to comply with its merger agreement requirements, raising suspicions that the firm is hiding the necessary data out of fear of what Mr Musk’s own examination of the data may reveal,” it continued.
According to reports, Musk’s letter states that if the purchase does not close, he will ensure that anyone evaluating the data is bound by a non-disclosure agreement and that he will not use any “competitively sensitive material.”
Musk had said earlier this month that he wouldn’t proceed with his Twitter transaction unless he received more information regarding the number of fraudulent accounts on the platform. Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed on May 13 that the 44 billion dollar Twitter transaction has been put on hold indefinitely, pending an estimate that less than 5% of Twitter users are spam/fake accounts.
He first indicated that his team will use random sampling to determine the number of false accounts, but Twitter’s CEO later clarified that nonpublic information would be required to obtain an accurate count of active fake accounts on the platform.
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