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Elon Musk calls off $44 billion Twitter (TWTR) deal

The deal between Elon Musk and Twitter appears to be dead.
Ozzie Mejia
Ozzie Mejia
Image: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch
3

After threatening to upend the world of social media for weeks, it now appears that any deal between Elon Musk and Twitter is officially dead.

The report of the deal's cancelation came through Reuters on Friday afternoon. Twitter (TWTR) shares fell 6 percent in afterhours trading following the news. According to the Reuters report, Musk's lawyers cited Twitter's failure and refusal to respond to requests for information about the social media network's spam bot accounts.

This is the latest chapter of what has been a long, long, long saga dating back to April when Musk offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion with plans to privatize the company. Weeks later, following drama revolving around Musk joining and then declining to join the company's board of directors, the Tesla owner and Twitter agreed to a $44 billion deal. However, things only got messier in the months since.

Since the initial $44 billion deal was agreed to, Musk raised a big fuss about Twitter bots. It was an issue that he refused to let go, frequently threatening to scuttle the deal and (ironically) airing his grievances on the subject regularly on Twitter. After repeatedly complaining about the Twitter bots, it now appears that Musk has ultimately opted not to proceed any further.

Twitter TWTR Elon Musk
Twitter (TWTR) stock has dropped since Elon Musk backed out of the deal to purchase the company. (Image courtesy of Yahoo! Finance)

Is this the end of the story between Musk and Twitter? Well, things aren't necessarily that simple. For one thing, Musk will have to part with $1 billion for walking away from the deal. On top of that, recall this CNBC report from May that adds that Musk is potentially liable for billions in damages if Twitter decides to sue him. In fact, Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor has already began threatening litigation and will look to take this case to the Delaware Court of Chancery.

The deal may be dead, but the saga of Elon Musk and Twitter does not appear to be over just yet. Stay tuned to Shacknews, as we'll continue to follow this story.

Senior Editor
Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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