EXPLAINER: Is Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter falling apart?

Elon Musk on Monday threatened to walk away from his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, the latest sign that his plan to overhaul the social media platform may really be starting to fray.

Lawyers for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the threat in a letter to Twitter accusing the company of refusing to give him information about “spam bot” accounts. Such bots have become a major public preoccupation for the volatile billionaire despite the fact that he declined an opportunity to examine Twitter's internal data a few months ago.

DID ELON MUSK BUY TWITTER?

Not yet. In April, Musk signed an agreement with Twitter to buy the company for $44 billion and take it private. But the deal hasn't closed. And as the weeks have passed, Musk has increasingly signaled discomfort with it, suggesting that he wants to negotiate a cheaper price or even to walk away entirely.

IS MUSK GETTING COLD FEET?

There are several reasons that Musk’s Twitter deal might have lost its luster since he signed it in April. Twitter is standing firm on Musk's agreed price of $54.20 per share — but since early May, the stock has fallen more than 25% below that figure. The gap between the deal price and the actual share price suggests that many investors don’t think the deal will go through.

Much of Musk’s initial $46 billion plan to finance the deal used stock in Tesla, his electric vehicle company, as collateral for loans he would use to purchase Twitter shares in the deal. He's since adjusted the plan so that more investors may be involved, including those with Twitter shares. But it's not clear exactly who those investors might be.

Tesla’s stock price has also fallen dramatically since April 4, the day Musk disclosed that he was Twitter’s largest stakeholder. Its 35% decline has cut deeply into Musk's wealth,...