Elon Musk tells Twitter he is killing the deal

Elon Musk is formally trying to end his bid to buy Twitter. After hinting heavily that he no longer wanted the company in tweets attacking Twitter over its bot calculations and an ominous story this week reflecting his thinking in The Washington Post, Musk’s legal team is taking steps to terminate his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter.

“Mr. Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect,” Musk’s lawyers wrote in a letter to Twitter’s Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde.

Musk points to his unsubstantiated claims that Twitter is misleading investors and users about the number of automated accounts on its platform, which the company has long estimated to be under 5 percent. Musk had no apparent qualms with Twitter’s bot count prior to inking the deal and actually mentioned that he planned to take on the platform’s spam problem as the company’s new owner.

Bret Taylor, the chairman of Twitter’s board of directors, responded to Musk’s letter Friday by doubling down on the company’s intentions to see the deal through. “The Twitter Board 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,” Taylor wrote.

The story is developing…