Musk sends letter accusing Twitter or withholding bot data

The move adds to speculation that Musk is trying to wriggle free of the agreement which comes with a $1 billion breakup fee, though his past tweets suggest he may try to get around that cost. Since he first voiced interest in Twitter in April, Teslas stock has been pummeled amid a broader pullback for tech stocks. Last week, he instituted a hiring freeze and pledged to cut Teslas salaried staff by 10 percent, saying in an email to staff that he had a super bad feeling about where the economy was headed.

We believe this is much more than a threat, Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, told The Post. He is trying to bail out of the deal.

Ives said the faulty account issue was always going to be the material breach Musk would use to secure his exit. It will help remove a major overhang on Tesla.

Securities law experts have said that Musk backing out at this stage could result in a protracted and messy legal battle, leaving the tech mogul incurring costs well over the penalty for walking away.

Spam bots, accounts that peddle cryptocurrency scams and otherwise seek to exploit vulnerable users, have long been a pet peeve of Musk one of the platforms most popular users, with over 96 million followers who regularly encounters impersonators in his activity on the site. Twitters own estimates put the number of spam accounts at 5 percent or less, but Musk has been calling for data the social media company says it cannot provide to verify the true figure.

As Twitters prospective owner, Mr. Musk is clearly entitled to the requested data to enable him to prepare for transitioning Twitters business to his ownership and to facilitate his transaction financing, says the letter, signed by Musks lawyer Mike Ringler, a mergers and acquisitions specialist. To do both, he must have a complete and accurate understanding of the very core of Twitters business model its active user base.

Musk is not required to explain his rationale for requesting the data, nor submit to the new conditions the company has attempted to impose on his contractual right to the requested data, lawyers noted.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.

Twitter’s shares slumped 5 percent in morning trading. Tesla’s shares edged up 1.5 percent.