Elon Musk Terminates Twitter Acquisition Deal

Elon Musk has formally begun the process of terminating his acquisition of Twitter, according to a recent regulatory filing. In response, the social media company vows to make sure that the deal will go through and is already planning to take legal action against Elon who is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.

Already a popular figure on the platform, Elon’s roller-coaster ride with the social media company began back in April when he became its largest shareholder. The 9.2% stake was estimated to be worth around USD2.89 billion (~RM12.79 billion) at that time.

Twitter then appoints Elon to its board but he eventually decided not to be part of it. Less than two weeks later though, the company made a regulatory filing that revealed Elon’s offer to acquire the company through a deal that was approximately worth USD41 billion (~RM181.51 billion).

He was so determined to buy over Twitter to the point that he would reconsider his stake in the company if his offer got rejected. In late April, Twitter’s board of directors accepted his offer with the finalized transaction being valued at USD44 billion (~RM194.79 billion).

However, the acquisition process came to a screeching halt in mid-May after Elon pushed Twitter to fully disclose the exact number of fake or spam accounts that existed on the platform. This eventually became the foundation for the termination of the acquisition deal.

Meanwhile, Twitter clearly is having none of Elon’s backtracking attempts. The Chairman of its board, Bret Taylor responded to the termination by saying that they are determined to get the deal done according to the terms that Elon has agreed on.

Furthermore, the company is planning to take legal action in order to make the agreement stick and believed that the court will be on its side. All in all, things are far from over between Elon and Twitter for the time being.

(Source: United States Securities and Exchange Commission / Twitter – [pdf].)