Elon Musk moved to cancel his $44 billion purchase of Twitter on Friday afternoon. It is almost inevitable that the next phase of the saga will involve a judicial case.
This was the latest twist in a fast-moving process that saw the billionaire Tesla CEO become the company’s largest shareholder, decline a board seat, agree to purchase the social media platform, and then voice concerns about moving forward with the acquisition.
According to a regulatory filing made Friday night, a lawyer for Musk said in a letter to Twitter’s top lawyer that he is terminating the agreement because Twitter (TWTR) is “in significant breach of various provisions” of the original contract, which was signed in April.
Read more: Twitter hires regulation organization to sue Elon Musk’s
Without providing any concrete evidence, Musk has been worried for weeks that there are more spam and bot accounts on the network than Twitter has officially acknowledged. Given the recent declines in Twitter shares and the larger tech industry, analysts have hypothesized that the worries could be an attempt to fabricate a reason for the buyer to back out of a deal that he may now perceive as being expensive. The price of Tesla (TSLA) shares, which Musk intended to use in part to finance the deal, has also dropped significantly since he approved it.
Read also: Elon Musk Twitter Saga: Moved to the courts
