Elon Musk's initial plan of buying Twitter for the whopping price tag of $44 billion seems to be taking a bit of a turn. A few weeks ago, it was reported that the sale was on hold. Since that time, Musk has been harping on the fact that he doesn't like how many bot accounts are on Twitter. In fact, he has been asking Twitter for a hard inquiry into bot accounts and he would also like to know just how many there are on the platform.
According to Variety, Musk and his lawyers are now accusing Twitter of being in"material breach" of the potential sale, claiming that Twitter refuses to give him proper research on the supposed bot problem. In fact, his lawyers went pretty hard at Twitter, saying the platform is obligated “to provide data and information that Mr. Musk requests in connection with the consummation of the transaction… Mr. Musk is entitled to seek, and Twitter is obligated to provide, information and data for, inter alia, ‘any reasonable business purpose related to the consummation of the transaction.'”
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Twitter has since released a statement in opposition to Musk's assertions, stating: “Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Mr. Musk to consummate the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement. We believe this agreement is in the best interest of all shareholders. We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms.”
Musk has been known to get in his own way at times and there is no doubt that his obsession with bots could very well lead to a cancelation of the sale. If that were to happen, then Musk would be looking at a huge fallout, all while Twitter goes on with its regularly scheduled programming.
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[Via]