Elmu, through his lawyers, today told Twitter that he plans to scrap his deal to buy the company if it does not provide him more information on the extent of its spambot problem. Jacob Kastrenakes:
…it wasn't until today that Musk made an official threat to back out of the acquisition, with most of his prior complaints being made in tweets and interviews. Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives wrote this morning that the letter indicates Musk is "looking to walk away from [the] deal." Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Twitter estimates that less than 5 percent of its daily users are spam accounts. Last month, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said the company had provided Musk with an explanation of how Twitter generates its spam estimates.
Musk launched his hostile takeover bid for the social network, unexpectedly prevailed, as has since been trying to get out of it—and the billion-dollar penalty that comes with cold feet. By demanding Twitter reveal detailed information about how it detects and manages garbage, he's not just threatening to scuttle the deal, he's threatening to scuttle the ship.
