Elon Musk says Twitter in breach of $44bn takeover deal

Elon Musk accused Twitter of breaching his right to information and the merger agreement between the two, sending shares of the latter down further.

The latest broadside from the world's richest man triggered speculation that he was intent on scrapping plans to buy the social media platform or that he might be trying to obtain better terms.

A letter from Musk's lawyers included alongside a 6 June filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission stated that: "[Twitter is requited] to provide data and information that Mr. Musk requests in connection with the consummation of the transaction [...]

"Mr. Musk is entitled to seek, and Twitter is obligated to provide, information and data for, inter alia, ‘any reasonable business purpose related to the consummation of the transaction."

In response, as of 1513 GMT shares of Twitter were trading down by 4.23% to $38.46.

Musk had tweeted the month before that Twitter's real active user base was approximately 20% less than number claimed due to fake or spam accounts, four times more than the company's own estimate, adding that it could be "much higher".

Twitter boss Parag Agrawal responded saying that he could not respond to Musk´s questions because the company used private information as part of its estimates which it could not share.