Elon Musk, said to be the world's richest man, has backed out of a deal to buy social media platform Twitter.
The $US44 billion acquisition appears dead. In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, he said he was exercising his right to "terminate the Merger Agreement and abandon the transaction".
Musk alleges breaches by Twitter, inlcuding firing senior executives which went against the company's obligation to "preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organisation".
Musk's filing: "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".
He also says that twitter has failed, despite repeated requests, to provide data on fake Twitter accounts.
However, Twitter is fighting back.
Bret Taylor, the chair of Twitter: "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. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery."
Twitter shares were trading at $US36.81, well below the $54.20 Musk bid price.
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