Ding Dong Ditches ⇥ wsj.com

Meghan Bobrowsky and Cara Lombardo, Wall Street Journal:

Elon Musk is seeking to terminate his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter Inc., saying that the company hasn’t provided the necessary data and information he needs to assess the prevalence of fake or spam accounts, according to a regulatory filing Friday.

Well, I am sure this is the last we will hear of this event that has either been a barely consequential drama or very public stock market manipulation.

Bret Taylor, chairman of Twitter’s board of directors, tweeted Friday afternoon that the board plans to pursue legal action to enforce the deal at the price and terms originally agreed upon.

Bloomberg’s Matt Levine on Twitter:

the reason that elon musk can’t get out of the deal over the bots thing is not that he “waived due diligence.” it’s that he SIGNED A BINDING AGREEMENT TO BUY TWITTER, and that agreement does not have any outs for “i think there are too many bots.”

So this is just going to keep on dragging on until Musk shouts “smoke bomb” and runs away, right? Hoo-ray.

Update: Matt Levine, Bloomberg:

I tell you what though. I have learned my lesson. The next time Elon Musk announces that he is going to buy a public company — and he will do it again! — I will know not to believe him. I will definitely know not to write about it.

Probably the safest choice.