Twitter stock plummets after fight with Musk over bots

Twitter shares fell after Elon Musk made official his refusal to acquire the social network that he accuses of being full of bots; Twitter shareholders say they will fight in court to close the sale.

When Elon Musk announced last April that he wanted to buy Twitter, the social network tried to avoid it by all means. Now that the eccentric billionaire has decided to withdraw his takeover offer, the Little Blue Bird company is doing everything it can to force Musk to go ahead with the acquisition.

Why? At stake is the very value of the company, whose shares have not stopped falling since the tycoon announced last Friday that he was withdrawing from the agreement to acquire the platform.

The original merger agreement reached by Twitter with Elon Musk, of US$44,000 million, includes a clause that establishes a penalty of US$1,000 million in the event that either party decides to back out.

However, Twitter does not seek to pressure Musk to pay that amount, but wants him to go ahead with the purchase, as its president, Bret Taylor, assured in a tweet: "Twitter's board is committed to closing the transaction with the price and terms agreed with Mr Musk and plans to take legal action to enforce the merger agreement."

While for the richest man in the world, owner of companies such as Tesla or SpaceX, and whose fortune is valued at US $ 220,000 million, the amount of the penalty can be considered almost small change.

Twitter will fight in Delaware courts to force Musk to go through with the purchase, while the Tesla tycoon has assured that he will not buy it because it is full of bots.