Elon Musk said his $44 billion offer for Twitter Inc will not go through until the firm can verify that spambots represent less than 5% of its total users, hours after hinting that he might seek a lesser price.
“My offer was based on the accuracy of Twitter’s SEC filings. Twitter’s CEO publicly declined to present proof of a 5% increase yesterday (spam accounts). This agreement cannot be finalised until he performs “In a tweet, Musk stated.
Musk said he feared spam accounts comprise up at least 20% of users, compared to Twitter’s official estimates of 5%, after putting his offer on hold last week pending details on spam accounts.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2022
He remarked at the All-In Summit 2022 conference in Miami on Monday, “You can’t pay the same price for something that is considerably worse than they claimed.”
Musk stated at the conference when asked if the Twitter transaction would be realistic at a different price, “That is to say, it is not impossible. My fears increase as I ask more inquiries.”
“They claim to have a complicated approach that only they can comprehend… It can’t be some deep mystery more complicated than the human soul or something similar.”
The stock had slid more than 8% to settle at $37.39 on Monday, lower than the day before Musk announced his Twitter stake in early April, raising worries about whether the billionaire entrepreneur would complete the deal at the agreed price.
In response to Musk’s criticism of Twitter’s handling of bogus accounts, CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted on Monday that internal estimates of spam accounts on the social media network for the last four quarters were “far under 5%.”
