Breaking: Elon Musk ends $44bn bid to buy Twitter

Elon Musk has for weeks been trying to get information about how many daily active users Twitter has.

Twitter has a problem with bots. In fact only yesterday it said it removed a million spam accounts a day.

In a filing, Mr Musk said he’d repeatedly been refused information about the number of bot accounts on Twitter – which is why he wished to terminate the deal.

Elon Musk though has already put pen to paper on this deal, and it is not totally clear whether he can back out at this stage. Mr Musk will need to prove that Twitter breached their agreement.

There are other potential reasons why Mr Musk might want to pull out of the deal.

The stock market price for large tech companies has fallen steeply in the last few months – did Musk offer too much?

And then there was the impact the potential merger was having on Mr Musk’s other companies. Tesla’s share price has fallen significantly since he announced his interest in Twitter.

His position on free speech and how Twitter might moderate in the future – based on the laws of individual countries – also at times came across as naïve. Did Elon Musk ultimately decide he had bitten off more than he could chew?

Twitter chairman Bret Taylor said the company would pursue legal action to ensure the merger went ahead.

“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk,” Mr Taylor wrote in a tweet.

Shares in Twitter fell by 7% in extended trading after the announcement.

Mr Musk, said to be the world’s richest person, is the founder of rocket company SpaceX and electric car company Tesla.