Elon Musk has stated that he will not proceed with his $44 billion purchase of Twitter unless the social media company can show that bots account for less than 5% of its users, adding to the deal’s uncertainty. “This deal cannot proceed forward” unless Twitter offers proof of its assertions, the billionaire said, expressing his own belief that the ratio is much greater.
Musk’s recent public statement complicates an already tumultuous takeover, which might be one of the largest internet industry histories. Musk recently got into an online spat with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal over how the social media company handles bots, fueling rumours that Musk would try to cut the price or perhaps walk away.
After falling more than 8% the day before, Twitter’s stock sank another 3.2 %(approximately) in pre-market trade in New York.
Problem with fake users:
Musk said that bogus users account for at least 20% of all Twitter accounts and maybe as much as 90% during a tech conference in Miami. The average of fraudulent or spam accounts “represented fewer than 5% of our monthly daily active users throughout the quarter,” Twitter says in its quarterly results, adding that it used “substantial judgment” in its estimate and that the real number might be higher.
Musk asked Twitter users to do their own bot tests, crowdsourcing the effort to determine whether bots accounted for less than 5% of the service. Agrawal responded to Musk’s claims with a lengthy thread outlining his company’s procedures. Musk responded by wondering why Twitter doesn’t merely phone individuals to verify their identity and send a poop emoji.
The new round of tweets from the world’s wealthiest man adds to Musk’s campaign to take over the microblogging site. He announced a stake of more than 9% in the firm last month, then launched an unsolicited takeover offer – without specific finance plans – all within weeks as a busy user with over 90 million followers.
Last week, Musk widened the gaps in the agreement by tweeting that his bid to acquire Twitter was “temporarily on pause” until he received more information regarding the number of false accounts. Musk stated in another tweet almost two hours later that he was “still committed” to the agreement.
