Mr Musk’s lawyers argued in filings that Twitter had failed or refused to respond to multiple requests for information on spam accounts, a crucial aspect of the company’s business performance. Representatives of the South African born billionaire also criticised the departure of a number of Twitter executives since the deal was finalised.
They said: “Three executives have resigned from Twitter since the Merger Agreement was signed: the Head of Data Science, the Vice President of Twitter Service, and a Vice President of Product Management for Health, Conversation, and Growth.”
Therefore the lawyers argued this was a “material breach” of the deal.
Twitter Chairman Brett Taylor vowed to fight the Tesla owner in court in order to force Mr Musk to complete the deal which was agreed in April.
He said: “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.”
Twitter shares fell seven percent in late trading to $34.25 (£28.45).
Mr Musk had agreed to buy the company for $54.20 (£45.03) per share.
Under the terms of the agreed deal Mr Musk is in line to receive a $1 billion (£831 million) termination fee.
READ MORE: Ukraine urged to destroy Russia’s bridge to Crimea by NATO commander
However this was not sufficient to address Mr Musk’s concerns.
There were signs that the takeover could be in trouble earlier on Friday when a report emerged claiming that Mr Musk had “stopped engaging” in talks about the buyout.
Twitter bosses had previously claimed that around five percent of accounts on the site were fake.
Mr Musk disputed this arguing that 20 percent of the site’s 330 million users were fake.
However some analysts have argued that the fake accounts argument was a ploy by Mr Musk to lower his offer price.
