Tesla's eccentric billionaire-CEO Elon Musk has doubled down on his claim that Twitter disclosed an incorrect number of bots and sent a fresh letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), terminating the deal to buy the social media platform.
As per the letter sent to SEC, Musk's lawyers cited claims made by Twitter's former head of security-turned-whistleblower Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko that Twitter was not sure of the number of total bots on its platform. The letter, quoted below, clarifies that the additional information is only to augment Musk's initial claims about an incorrect number of bots, and is not in lieu of the reasons mentioned in the first deal termination letter sent on July 8.
"Because the facts described in the August 29 Termination Letter were known to Twitter and withheld from (Elon Musk), and because Twitter has taken the position that the Merger Agreement remains in effect, (Musk) sent the August 29 Termination Letter on the basis of the facts described therein. For the avoidance of doubt, these bases are in addition to, and not in lieu of, the bases for termination described in the July 8 Termination Letter," the letter reads.
Further, Musk's legal team claimed in the letter that the August 29 letter was filed as a contigency "in the event that the July 8 Termination Letter is determined to be invalid for any reason."
Musk had started expressing his interest in buying the social media platform earlier this year and, on April 14, presented the "best and final" offer of $43 billion to Twitter's board of directors. Even back then, Musk had made bots on Twitter central to his plans for the microblogging site, even tweeting that if his "twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!"
However, Musk soon said his offer was pending on information about spam accounts, adding that that he suspects they make up at least 20 percent of users — compared to Twitter's official estimates of 5 percent.
Musk finally backed out of the deal, citing bots as the dealbreaker, on July 8. Twitter promptly took him to court in a bid to force him to stick to the terms of the agreement, and the case is set to go to trial in October.
On August 29, Musk's legal team sent a request to Zatko for a deposition on September 9. This put Zatko at the centre of the brewing legal storm involving Musk and Twitter.
