Elon Musk is heading into uncertainty over his decision to buy Twitter. The Tesla founder said that he might not move forward with the $44 billion price tag to buy the social media platform until Twitter proves that spam accounts on the platform are less than 5% of the active users.
In a tweet, Musk stated that his offer was based on the filings of SEC of the platform being accurate. He wrote that 20% are fake or spam accounts, which is four times what Twitter claims, and the number could be even higher!
Is the deal falling apart?
Taking to Twitter itself, he revealed that Twitter’s incumbent CEO refused to show him proof that spam accounts account for less than 5% of the audience on the application.
During a conference in Miami, Musk made it common knowledge that he was relying on public filings, but if they aren’t accurate, you cannot pay the same price for something that is ‘worse’ than claimed.
He even said that external estimates by firms suggest that circa 20% of mDAUs on Twitter are fake accounts. But he worries that the number could be 80% to 90%!
When questioned if the deal could go through with a different price, he said it was not out of the question. At the moment, Musk is having talks over the actual numbers of bots with Twitter’s Chief Executive Parag Agrawal.
He also said that this ‘problem’ is not the end of the world, and he could fix it within a reasonable time frame.
What the Twitter CEO had to say
In a tweet, Agrawal tweet highlighted the issue of fake bots, and he emphasized that the number of spam accounts is less than 5% from the last quarter. He said that the platform is efficient in removing accounts of such nature, and the count can go up to half a million daily!
However, Agrawal said that no one could estimate fake bots externally. According to him, public and private information (which he can’t disclose) must be considered when making such an evaluation. On the other hand, Musk mockingly responded to this Twitter thread.
While we await the decision on Twitter’s future, it is worth mentioning that the deal is not completely off. While the ‘bots’ issue may have been a hindrance, we cannot rule anything out yet. As said by Musk himself, the takeover could go through at a different price.
