Late at night against July 9, Elon Musk announced that he would initiate the termination of the agreement with Twitter to buy the social network for $44 billion and change the company’s form of ownership from public to private. The eccentric businessman and the world’s richest man cited “false and misleading” data about the number of spambots on the platform as the reason. Hours before the official confirmation came, The Washington Post reported that Elon Musk had changed his mind and was trying to terminate his agreement with Twitter.
Elon Musk signed a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion at the end of April after several tries and a 9% stake . At first they wanted to close it before the end of 2022, but in early May, Elon Musk suspended its implementation due to suspicions of underestimating the number of fake spam accounts in the company’s reports, and in early June he mentioned his right not to complete the deal if management refuses to provide him more data on fake accounts. Against this background, a recent study looks especially ironic that 23% of Elon Musk’s followers on Twitter are fake or spam accounts.
On the night of July 9, Elon Musk told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Twitter “failed in its contractual obligation” to provide information that would help estimate the share of bots on the platform. The businessman is sure that they are much more than 5%, which were officially indicated in Twitter reports.
“For almost two months, Mr. Musk has been trying to find the data and information needed to “conduct an independent audit of the number of fake or spam accounts on the platform.” At the same time, Twitter either could not or refused to provide this information.
excerpt from the text of a letter from representatives of Elon Musk
At the same time, several lawyers have previously noted that the agreement is already in the process of closing and it will not be easy to break it. In addition, it was reported that the number of bots is not directly mentioned anywhere in the text of the agreement.
Twitter immediately reacted – Chairman of the Board of Directors Bret Taylor said that the company was ready to appeal Musk’s decision in court and was confident that it was right. On the back of this news, Twitter shares fell sharply – they lost almost 5% in premarket trading.
If Elon Musk eventually manages to terminate the deal, the businessman will have to pay a fine of a billion dollars.
Elon Musk already has over 100 million followers on Twitter – about 20 million added after signing an agreement to buy the social network
