Tesla CEO Elon Musk cites whistle-blower as another reason to exit US$44 billion Twitter deal
- Musk again filed paperwork to end deal to buy Twitter, this time based on a whistle-blower complaint filed by the platform’s former head of security
- Tesla CEO alleges company he agreed to acquire undercounted fake and spam accounts, which means he does not have to go through with US$44 billion deal
Elon Musk has cited the recent accusations from a Twitter Inc. whistle-blower as a new reason to terminate the US$44 billion takeover of the social media platform.
Peiter Zatko, Twitter’s ex-head of security, claimed he raised questions about severe shortcomings in the social media company’s handling of users’ personal data, including running out-of-date software and that executives had withheld information about breaches and lack of protections for user data.
In a filing on Tuesday, lawyers on behalf of Musk said the allegations by Zatko, including “egregious deficiencies” in the platform’s defences against hackers and privacy issues, meant that Twitter had breached the conditions in the merger agreement.
Twitter shares fell 1.3 per cent in premarket trading on Tuesday before New York exchanges opened, to US$39.50, far below Musk’s offer price of US$54.20.
Musk has been attempting for months to try and extract himself from the takeover of Twitter, initially leading with the claim that Twitter’s user figures are inflated by millions of robot accounts. The billionaire’s legal team has recently switched its attention to Zatko, who was fired from Twitter earlier this year.