Elon Musk is ceasing his attempted takeover of Twitter, he announced Friday. The billionaire would initially spend 44 billion dollars (43 billion euros) on the social medium.
With his announcement, the richest person in the world puts an end to uncertainty and speculation about the deal he made with Twitter in April.
Musk delayed the acquisition after the social media company failed to prove that fake accounts made up less than 5 percent of its total user base. The platform did not respond to requests for information about the number of fake and spam accounts.
“Twitter is violating multiple provisions of that agreement and appears to have made false and misleading statements that Mr. Musk relied on when entering into the merger agreement,” Musk’s attorneys said.
Musk offered more than $54 a share of Twitter in April, but in long-term trading, the value of the shares has plunged by 7 percent.
$1 billion fine
Under the terms of the deal, Musk must pay a $1 billion fine if he abandons the acquisition. His decision is likely to result in a lengthy lawsuit against the 16-year-old San Francisco company.
In June, Twitter gave Musk access to a database of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets. The company is determined to keep Musk to the agreements made. It will take legal action to make that happen, Twitter CEO Bret Taylor promised in a tweet.
