Finally, after a real saga throughout the spring, the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk will certainly not take place. The Billionaire accused the social network of “actively resist” to its requests for information about bots and spam. He is convinced that there are more fake accounts than what Twitter management currently suggests.
Does Twitter withhold information about fake accounts?
Elon Musk’s attorney has sent a letter to Twitter’s chief legal officer. This was published on the site of the American authority of the financial markets (the Securities and Exchange Commission). In this letter, it is stated that “Mr. Elon Musk reserves all rights resulting from this manifest breach, including his right not to consummate the transaction and his right to terminate the merger agreement”. Indeed, the boss of Tesla accuses the company of “retention of information”.
Before Leaving Meta, Sheryl Sandberg Sold $1.7 Billion in Stock
After filing a takeover bid in April to acquire Twitter, he made several requests for full information about bots and spam as part of his takeover bid. According to the social network, fake accounts represent less than 5% of accounts registered on the platform. This figure probably did not convince Musk, who believes that the fake accounts would rather represent 20% of all users. For this reason, Elon Musk is considering terminating his agreement with Twitter.
Parag Agrawal does not want to let go
The purchase had already been suspended by the billionaire due to his doubts about the real proportion of spam and fake accounts on the platform. In the letter published on the SEC website, we can read that “Twitter’s latest offer to simply provide additional details relating to its testing methodologies, whether through written documents or verbal explanations, is tantamount to denying Mr. Elon Musk’s requests for data”. It is Parag Agrawal, the current CEO of Twitter, who blocks.
According to the boss of Twitter, the advanced figure of 5% of fake accounts is not invented but “based on multiple replications of human analysis of accounts, which are randomly selected”. Elon Musk wants to ensure the good health of the social network and also claims that it is a “fundamental question for the financial health of Twitter”. Is this an attempt by Elon Musk to lower the redemption price? Nothing is done. It will still be necessary to be patient to know if the boss of Tesla will make the acquisition of the social network.