Elon Musk announces 'cancelling Twitter acquisition'

In April 2022, electric car maker Tesla and space developer SpaceX founder Elon Musk signed an agreement to buy Twitter for $ 44 billion . However, Mr. Musk officially announced that he would withdraw from the acquisition on July 8, 2022 local time, with the acquisition of Twitter pending less than a month after the acquisition was completed.

Elon Musk officially tries to bail on buying Twitter --The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/8/23200961/elon-musk-files-back-out-twitter-deal-breach-of-contract

Elon Musk tells Twitter he is killing the deal | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/08/elon-musk-not-buying-twitter-sec/

Mr. Musk acquired Twitter, saying that continuing to function as a 'public place where many people can freely talk about all topics' will help maintain the 'free speech' that is the basis of democracy. I planned to do it. Musk became Twitter's largest shareholder on April 5, 2022, proposing to buy the remaining shares for a total of $ 44 billion. On the 26th of the same month, Twitter agreed to the proposal and decided to acquire Mr. Musk on Twitter.

Twitter agrees on Elon Musk's 5.6 trillion yen acquisition plan-GIGAZINE

by Steve Jurvetson

However, on May 13, Musk said, 'We will temporarily suspend the acquisition of Twitter until we have data to support Twitter's estimate that'spam and fake accounts are less than 5% of users'.' Tweeted and announced that it would suspend the acquisition of Twitter until the facts became clear.

Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam / fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users https://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022

In response to this tweet, Spark Toro , a website analysis tool, and Followerwonk , an analysis tool for Twitter, jointly analyzed tens of thousands of Twitter accounts. As a result, it turns out that about 20% of Twitter's active accounts are spam / fake accounts.

Survey results show that about 20% of Twitter's active accounts are spam / fake accounts --GIGAZINE

Then, on Friday, July 8, 2022 local time, Mr. Musk submitted a document to the US Securities and Exchange Commission informing him that he would cancel the acquisition of Twitter. 'We will cancel the deal because Twitter has committed a serious breach of the deal and made misleading and false statements,' Musk said.

'We've gathered the data and information we need to independently assess the spread of fake and spam accounts on Twitter for nearly two months,' Musk's legal team said in a statement. Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information, 'he said, explaining why the acquisition was cancelled.

In addition, Twitter chairman Bret Taylor said after Mr. Musk showed a move to cancel the acquisition of the company, 'Twitter will take legal action to proceed with the acquisition, and if it develops into a lawsuit, it will win. I'm sure. '

The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

— Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022

In addition, the reason why Mr. Musk decided to cancel the acquisition of Twitter is 'because fake accounts and spam accounts are widespread', but 'it is unknown whether the acquisition contract can be canceled for this reason alone' overseas media The Verge wrote.

On the other hand, after the acquisition agreement was reached, Twitter has launched various measures in response to Mr. Musk's request. Twitter removes more than 1 million spam accounts per day from the platform, and quarterly aggregates report that spam accounts have dropped to less than 5% of the total.

The Verge said of Musk's plans to acquire Twitter: 'It seemed like he enjoyed making hopeful product plans for freedom of speech and corporate independence, rather than wanting to make a new business plan for Twitter.' Musk's acquisition of Twitter was more like a new game or something than an attempt to acquire and grow a new business. ' ..