Elon Musk terminates $44 billion deal to buy Twitter

Elon Musk.
Elon Musk. Photo credit: Getty Images

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said on Friday he was terminating his $44 billion deal for Twitter Inc, citing material breach of multiple provisions of the agreement.

Shares of Twitter fell 6 percent in extended trading.

In a filing, Musk's lawyers said Twitter had failed or refused to respond to multiple requests for information on fake or spam accounts on the platform, which is fundamental to the company's business performance.

Musk had threatened to halt the deal unless the company showed proof that spam and bot accounts were fewer than 5 percent of users who see advertising on the social media service.

Last month, Twitter allowed Musk access to its "firehose", a repository of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.