Elon Musk: Twitter deal cannot progress without proof on bot numbers

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17.05.2022 - 12:45

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theguardian.com:

Elon Musk has said his $44bn (£35bn) takeover of Twitter cannot progress until the social media company proves that less than 5% of its users are spam accounts.

The Tesla chief executive used his Twitter account to say that the deal will not move forward until the firm shows proof that only a small proportion of its users are fake. Musk had announced last week that the deal was on hold after he queried Twitter’s claim in filings with the US financial regulator that a small proportion of its users are fake.

“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.”

<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>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.

On Monday, Musk suggested that he could seek to pay a lower price for Twitter, as the social media company’s would-be owner continued to express concerns about the presence of fake accounts on the platform.

He said reducing his agreed $54.20 a share offer wouldn’t be “out of the question”, days after putting the $44bn deal “on hold” after he queried the number of spam accounts on Twitter.

More details soon …