Elon Musk Sends Second Deal Termination Letter to Twitter, Subpoenas Whistleblower

Elon Musk’s lawyers have sent a second deal termination to Twitter citing the damning allegations made by a whistleblower as reasoning for pulling out of the $44 billion acquisition deal Musk first moved to cancel in July.

Axios reports that Elon Musk’s lawyers issued a second deal termination letter to Twitter on Monday, citing recent allegations made by a Twitter whistleblower as the basis for pulling out of Musk’s $44 billion acquisition deal for the company which he moved to cancel in July.

Musk’s legal team also subpoenaed the Twitter whistleblower, Peiter Zatko who alleges that Twitter has been “lying” about the number of bots on its platform, particularly to Musk. Musk has long claimed that while Twitter alleges that bots account for approximately five percent of its platform, the number is closer to 20 percent.

Zatko alleges that Twitter arrives at its official percentage of bots by only sampling from a subset of accounts known as “monetizable daily active users,” or mDAUs. But this metric, which was created to give advertisers an idea of how many real humans are looking at their ads, already is designed to exclude bots.

Musk’s lawyers have filed a subpoena for Zatko requesting “documents and communications” regarding a number of the wrongdoings that Zatko is claiming including Twitter’s “tracking and measurements of user engagement.”

In the new termination letter, Musk’s lawyers argue that Zatko’s allegations “if true, demonstrate that Twitter has breached” a number of provisions outlined in its merger agreement with Musk, including its compliance with all laws and its claims that it never filed misleading information to securities regulators.

Twitter’s lawsuit against Elon Musk is scheduled to begin in October before the Delaware Court of Chancery.

Read more at Axios here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan