Twitter to sue Elon Musk after he pulls plug on $44bn takeover deal

Elon Musk has pulled out of a deal to take over Twitter for $44bn (£36.5bn).
In a statement provided to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, representatives for Mr Musk said Twitter breached terms of an agreement and “appears to have made false and misleading representations”.
They said Twitter had also failed to provide data and information requested by Mr Musk to enable him to “make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts” on the social media platform.
“Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr Musk incomplete or unusable information,” the statement continued.
As a result of Mr Musk’s decision, shares of Twitter fell 7% in extended trading, well below the $54.20 that he had offered to pay for the company back in April.
The terms of the deal require Mr Musk to pay a $1bn (£830m) break-up fee if he does not complete the transaction.
However, it seems Twitter’s board is not planning to accept the payment and will instead take legal action.
Twitter’s chairman Bret Taylor tweeted that the company 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,” he added.