Citing greater uncertainty over the Twitter deal, billionaire Elon Musk has announced that he will not proceed with his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter Inc. There are less than 5% of users.
Elon Musk “This deal can’t move forward” until Twitter provides evidence of its claims, reiterating its own view that the ratio is far higher.
Musk’s latest online announcement complicates an already chaotic takeover, potentially one of the largest acquisitions the internet industry has ever seen. Additionally, Musk bowed his head online with Twitter Chief Parag Agarwal The way the social media giant accounts for bots is fueling speculation Musk may try to cut the price or even walk away.
Twitter shares fell another 3.2% in pre-market trading in New York, after falling more than 8% as of the previous day. bloomberg report good.
Musk told a tech conference in Miami that fake users make up at least 20% of all Twitter accounts, possibly up to 90%. Twitter regularly states in its quarterly results that an average of false or spam accounts “represented less than 5% of our monthly daily active users during the quarter,” adding that it made a “significant decision” for its estimate. applies, and the true number may be higher.
Musk encouraged Twitter users to run their own tests for the bots, crowd-sourcing it in an effort to calculate whether they made less than 5% of the service. In response to Musk’s claim, Agarwal posted a lengthy thread explaining his company’s methodology. Musk responded by first asking why Twitter doesn’t just ask users to verify their identities — and then by posting a poop emoji.
The latest barrage of tweets from the world’s richest man is another twist in Musk’s attempt to acquire the micro-blogging site. A prolific user with more than 90 million followers, he revealed he owns a more than 9% stake in the company last month, then offered an unsolicited takeover — without elaborate financing plans — all within a few weeks.
Musk caused widening of potential cracks in the deal last week when he tweeted that his offer to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold” until he learned more about the proportion of fake accounts. About two hours later, Musk claimed in another tweet that he was “still committed” to the deal.
(with inputs from agencies)