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SEC letter questions Elon Musk tweet about Twitter (TWTR) acquisition

A new SEC filing revolves around an Elon Musk tweet made during his Twitter negotiations.

Donovan Erskine

July 14, 2022 9:40 AM

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Elon Musk’s Twitter deal has fallen apart and is on its way to courts, but it was quite the journey to reach that point. After originally agreeing on a $44 billion deal to acquire the social media company, Musk eventually backed out after Twitter failed to provide him and his team sufficient information on the platform’s bot and spam accounts. It’s an issue that Musk has tweeted about more than once in the past, and is now the subject of a recent letter from the SEC.

The SEC recently sent a letter to Elon Musk, as the company officially filed on its site. In the letter, the US Securities and Exchange Commission inquires about a past tweet from the multi-billionaire. Specifically, the May 2022 tweet in which he said the Twitter acquisition deal “cannot move forward” until the company presented concrete proof that bots and spam accounts only made up for 5 percent of all twitter accounts.

Elon Musk’s lawyer Mike Ringler replied to the letter, claiming that Musk was not suggesting as such with his tweet.

This is just the latest in a series of run-ins with Elon Musk and the SEC over the years. With Twitter now gearing up to see Elon Musk following his attempt to back out of the acquisition, it likely won’t be the last time we see his tweets referenced in such a manner. For more on the ongoing saga between Elon Musk and Twitter, stick with Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_