It’s been about three weeks since the company’s board of directors approved Elon Musk ‘s plan to buy Twitter for $44 billion, a deal that is already facing some problems.
Elon Musk reiterated his claim that fake accounts and spam could make up more than 20 percent of Twitter users, saying the takeover of the social media company “cannot move forward” until Twitter proves the accuracy of its much lower estimate of less than 5 percent. . Musk is currently buying Twitter and it has an estimated 226 million daily active users for $44 billion.
20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.
My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate.
Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%.
This deal cannot move forward until he does.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2022
The last chapter surrounding the social network kicked off with its first-quarter earnings report in April, days after both parties confirmed the deal was moving forward. Following this report, the company released a file stating that bot and spam accounts make up less than 5% of its users — in other words, accounts that don’t make sense to advertisers. Notwithstanding, without independent verification, Musk and other contributors were forced to take Twitter ‘s Word on these numbers.
Elon Musk suspends the Twitter deal temporarily, and the company’s shares are falling
On Friday morning, Tesla’s CEO tweeted that he has put the acquisition on hold for the time being, with its appeal dependent on if those stats prove right. Not surprisingly, Twitter stock fell sharply after the news, down about 8% for the day. Musk later released a follow-up tweet, simply saying that he “remains committed to the acquisition.”
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users https://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
On the face of it, these concerns coincide with statements made by Musk about his plans for the future of Twitter . Reducing bot accounts and spam has been one of the billionaire ‘s priorities since he began discussing a takeover of the company last month. In a Twitter press release announcing the acquisition, Musk stated that he would push not only to manipulate the bots but to authenticate and verify every human user on the site.
Today’s statement is in line with his concerns about Twitter , especially provided the company’s profile is not as accurate as they formerly indicated.
