Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s deal to purchase Twitter is said to now be “temporarily on hold.” Musk claims that the deal has been paused as he looks into confirming whether spam and fake accounts make up less than five percent of users on the platform.
As first reported by Engadget, Musk tweeted early on May 13 to confirm that the deal to purchase Twitter was on ice. Musk attached an article published by Reuters, reporting that Twitter estimates spam and fake accounts add up to less than five percent of its monetizable daily active users during Q1 2022.
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
Last month, Musk confirmed that he is taking the necessary steps to purchase Twitter for $44 billion. Once he has taken full control over the company, Musk has said that he wishes to open free speech on the platform.
The Tesla CEO has also been outspoken on his desire to authenticate all humans, make its algorithms open-source, and stop spam bots from using the platform. Additionally, Musk stated that he will reverse the ban on former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Currently, there’s no word on how Musk will verify the total percentage made up of spambots and fake accounts on Twitter. Naturally, when word began spreading that Musk’s deal was paused, some speculated whether Musk was getting cold feet. Some wondered if Musk ever really planned to purchase Twitter.
However, Musk wrote a follow-up tweet, clarifying that he is “still committed” to seeing the $44 billion acquisition through.
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Mmm more like Twitter tanking, so let’s try and get it cheaper later on.
Wtf? I will lose any ounce of respect I had left for the Musketeer if he wasn’t serious about this purchase.
Can someone educate me…is he upset that there are ONLY 5% bots??? Was he purchasing the platform for the bots?
Makes no sense.
I think he feels they are being dishonest and it raises the question of just how bad things really are if they are hiding things like how many bots are running.
Also, given how much their stock has tanked, it is worth his time to possibly reduce his offer. If he could negotiate a $5-$10/share reduction, he’d save billions, even if he had to pay a $1b penalty. I think the price is down almost $15 from when he made his offer. This could be a tactic to make them more open to a lower offer.
That would be the only logical explanation – and when it comes to THAT many zeroes I guess any reason is as good as any.
Still makes me question his original intentions related to restoring free speech. I’m naive, I had hope.
Will the board play hardball again and reject the offer if it is lower.
Maybe. But their financials are looking worse and worse, so they might be failing their fiduciary duty to reject an offer well above current value, even if it’s way below the current offer.
It’s strange that this comes to light this late in the acquisition process, after he convinced some big players to chip in with billions, this doubts that should have been removed much earlier, during due diligence. Is he so gullible that Twitter board could have lied to him so easily or is he maybe not such a savvy businessman he appears to be and acted impulsively?